The Leaf Angel Trilogy: Part I True Heart
by xUnicornsRulex
Summary: Nariko Haruno is an average girl, well except from the fact she can talk to the dead and call on a magic energy that helps her to kick butt. However, everything will change when she discovers the secret of her birth and her destiny.
1. I'm Nariko Haruno

The day was hot; really hot. An average person would only survive a few minutes maybe an hour out in this heat and then go home and dump themselves in a nice cool bath. However, I've never really been an average person; I've been walking since five o'clock this morning non-stop. My name is Nariko Haruno and I'm fifteen years old, for most of my life I have been living a nomadic life. I looked up into the sky to see it was coming up to mid-day, great it's going to get even hotter, not that the heat bothered me that much but it was starting to annoy me a little. Nevertheless, I should close to the village soon. As soon as I thought this I saw the large sand walls and the massive red gates that stop intruders entering the city. Finally! I thought sending a bit of charka into my feet to help me run faster; I had to slow down however, so I wouldn't scare off the two ninja guards sitting at the sign in booth.

"Name?" asked one of the shinobi with the spiky dark blue hair and a bandaged across his nose.

"Nariko Haruno!" I replied, handing him my passport. After a quick inspection with the passport I saw his eyebrows go further up is fore head in shock.

"Haruno eh?" He questioned, looking at me then at the passport again.

"Is something wrong?" I demanded, trying to stay calm because my anger was starting to build up, I've been walking all day, I don't have the time to stand around here talking. My question seemed to bring him back from his own little world and stared back at me.

"No, no, sorry." He muttered quickly, giving me back my passport. "Enjoy your day." About time, I thought, grabbing back my passport and walked in to the city.

"What is it Kotetsu-san?" Whispered Izumo into my ear. I turned my face away from the pink hair girl to see my team-mate with a worried and confused look on his face.

"No, it's nothing it's just that name and that girl remind me of someone." I commented, turning back to look at the girl again but found out she had already disappeared into the crowd of people. Why do I have a strange feeling I've met that person before? I thought to himself, I have a strange feeling about this, whether it's bad or good I don't know yet.

Konohagakure was nothing to what I thought it would be. The village was amazing. The buildings all had their own unique style to them but somehow still blended in well together. I looked over the city from a tall building I had found to get a better look at the place, from here I could see a hot springs that I was defiantly going to visit after I had found a place to stay, the hospital and Hokage tower. But what caught my attention the most was the faces of the six Hokage's on the rock formation overlooking the village. The faces of the fire country's strongest shinobi stood tall and proud on the cliff side. All of them were willing to give up their lives to protect everyone that lived in this village. It was breath taking; I could stare at it all day. At least I thought so but my stomach had other ideas. Man I am hungry, thinking back to the last time I ate was, which was about seven hours ago now. I guess it's time to go and get something to eat. Sending charka to my eyes I began searching the ground below me, it didn't take me long to identify a ramen shop called The Ichiraku Ramen Bar below. Yummy! I thought. I haven't had ramen for ages now. Jumping across the building roofs and jumped down in to the middle of the street right in front of the ramen shop, quickly took a free stool and sat down. A man in his late fifties or early sixties and wearing an apron turned around to face me.

"Good afternoon youngster!" The man greeted joyfully. "And how are you today?"

"I'm good thank you." I replied grabbing a small menu off the side of the counter and started looking through it. "Can I have some BBQ ramen please?" I finally asked, finding my favourite right down at the bottom.

"Ah good choice, one BBQ ramen coming" He stated, starting to boil some fresh noodles.

"Can you make those two BBQ ramens Teuchi-san?" Another voice asked, sitting himself next to me. I turned to look at the guy that sat next to me. He was about my age (maybe a little bit older) with long golden blonde hair sat gracefully around his face, it was very messy which added some sexiness to his strong sharp features and his baby blue eyes that shone with a mixture of kindness, intelligence and mischief. He wore black trousers with a dark blue baggy t-shirt that had an orange spiral in the middle of it and a kunai pocket was attached around his right leg. The rumours were right; there are a lot of good looking people around in Konohagakure, I mused to myself, before shaking the silly thoughts from my head.

"Here you go kids." The old man said handing out two bowls of good smelling ramen. Me and the good looking stranger mumble our thanks and began eating our food. It was the best ramen that I ever had; I was defiantly coming back here more often. God this village was great; I don't understand why mum made such a big fuss about me coming here. This thought made me turn back to the reason I was here in the first place. _Ok if I remember correctly the hospital was near Hokage tower, so if I follow that road until I reach the end then take a right..._

"...are you done?" a deep voice enter my thoughts. I curved back around to the chef to see him waiting for me to say something.

"I'm sorry did you say something." I asked politely, putting one of my sweetest faces on to show I was sorry.

"I said would you like anything else or are you done?" He restated, smiling sweetly back to show he wasn't offended that much.

"Eh, yeah can I have another bowl of BBQ ramen please." Handing over my bowl, he took it from my hands and started remaking another fresh bowl of ramen for me. I hadn't realised I was so hungry, I guess walking on nothing but pure will power for six hours does that to a person.

"You must be new around here." A curious deep voice said. I twisted to the direction of the voice. It came from the good looking stranger, who was now staring right at me in a funny way.

"Really" I answered sarcastically turning my head away so he could see I wasn't really interested and hoping my bowl of ramen would come soon, so I wouldn't have to talk to him.

"Yeah" he replied, finishing off his last piece of ramen. "I've never met a girl around here before who ate a large bowl of BBQ ramen before, let alone two." What's that meant to mean? I wanted to shout back but didn't because:

I didn't want to get into a fight on my first day here

My ramen had arrived.

He didn't talk while I ate but he still kept staring at me which was even more annoying. I didn't look at him so I couldn't see him staring him but I could feel his eyes burning on to the back of my head. I know it sounds crazy but I just knew, I had a strange gift ever since I was born; among other things. I quickly finished off my ramen and past the money I owned the old man, muttering my thanks. Rapidly grabbed my stuff and started walking.

I found a place to bunk for the night. It wasn't much but I've slept in worse conditions, besides it was only for a few nights. I was meant to be going to the hospital to see if it was taking anyone on but I felt really lazy and decided to take a look around the place (plus I had enough money to keep me alive for about five years without getting a job so I'm in no rush). I took a quick shower and put on a pink skirt and white t-shirt (hey I felt like wearing something different) before leaving the motel to explore. I had been walking around for a bit now and it was getting late. So there weren't that many people out, giving me some peace and quiet to think. I came across a little red bridge, I don't why but it felt like a meeting point for some reason. Despite that fact it felt strange for some reason it was the perfect place to read a book. Pulling out a little book I carried in my little bag, I jumped on top of the bridge so I could read my romance novel. Even though I had read this novel a hundred times I just loved the story. Despite being separated through war they still remain faithful to each other. Love triumphs over all. True, the saying is corny but I think everything about love is corny anyway so...

The presence of another charka snapped me out of my thoughts. Quickly but stealthily, I grabbed three kunai's out of my holder- while pretending to still be reading- and threw them with a swift flick of my wrist to where I felt the charka presence. The clash of metal slashed through the air as I heard my kunai's be deflected. Before I could do anything someone grabbed both my wrists to stop me from getting more kunai out.

"That wasn't very..." the voice didn't have a chance to finish because I threw my head forward clashing both our foreheads together, forcing my opponent back.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I shrieked. My anger at its boiling point, I quickly reached for another kunai to throw at the stranger. It was then that I took a proper first look at my attacker for the first time. It was the boy from the ramen shop.

"Me?" He asked, with a mixer of emotions swirling around his face. "I'm Minato Uzumaki."


	2. Getting to know you

"Well Minato Uzuamaki. Can you explain why you just attacked me now?" I demanded. My kunai raise ready to attack or defend if necessary. My eyes never leaving this... Minato guy. I was ready for anything. Except for the action Minato did next. He started laughing. I'm sorry but when you're in a battle you don't just start laughing for no reason. Well except the evil crazy people who always do that weird evil laugh, but they have a reason at least. I wanted to scream and stomp around and demand what the hell was going on but when I was in kicking ass mode all of my emotions disappeared. My thoughts were only on the fight. I waited for him to stop laughing (if this was some kind of distraction) cause I wasn't going to be the one making the first move.

"You do release that you're the one who attacked me?" He managed to utter out of his mouth. Years of training stopped me from going over and slapping him hard across his face. I carefully placed my kunai back into my pouch but never taking my eyes off him. What a juck, scaring me half to death like that while I was trying to read my...book. Wait a sec. What happen to my book? It wasn't in my bag (of course it wasn't but I thought it was worth looking anyway) and it wasn't where I had been sitting. Then where did it go. I must have dropped it somewhere. It can't just disappear, looking over the edge I saw my book splattered all over the ground. Great now I'll have to piece it back together again, dropping on to the ground I started picking up my book or picking up the pieces of my book as some of the pages had come out of the book and the cover had ripped off a bit. I might want to add that this book was quite old, thinking about it how old was this book now. I was pretty shore that it was older than me because my mum had it before I was born.

"Sorry." I heard the boy mutter behind me. Sorry! I thought. Why was he say sorry?

"Hn" I mumble back acting like I wasn't really paying any attention to him. Instead I focused staring at the -what use to be- book in my hands, I was going to need a lot of tape when I got back to the inn; this was going to take a while to fix. I carefully place everything back inside my bag and walked on.

"Hey wait." I heard Minato yell behind me. Oh great! What does he want now? I walked a bit faster in hopes of getting away from him sooner. However, I wasn't quick enough. I could feel his presence just behind.

"What do you want?" I snapped, twisting around to face him. Well attempted to anyway, instead of facing him, I bumped into his chest. Which was hardly my fault since:

He was standing right behind me (This guy has never heard of personal space)

It was 6 foot 1 against 5 foot 7.

Then I realised I had bring pressed into his chest for a bit too long. Quickly, I pushed myself away.

"Well." I demanded, trying to sound like nothing had happen a few seconds ago.

"I was only trying to give this back since you left it at Ichiraku." He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a little sliver book. Only it wasn't a book, it was a mini a photo album I carried around with. Without a second thought a grabbed it straight from his hands and placed it into my bag.

"Thanks" I muttered. As I turned to continue walking I felt something grab my arm.

"What now!" I almost scream, fed up with this annoying game.

"I just wonder if you would like to accompany back to your place." He asked. What the hell was this guy up to? I quickly read is aura to sense any danger from this guy. There was no danger, just curiosity and something else... Who knows? Maybe I'll get this idiot off my back if I bore him, so he doesn't find me interesting and hopefully leave me alone.

"Fine." I finally answered. I saw Minato smile, like he was a five year old that had won some game. We'll see about that, I thought, let the boring game begin.

Ten minutes later and not one of us had said a word. Which was weird because I was expecting lots of nosy questions? Which was ok with me since I didn't need to talk to him, but I couldn't help but feel suspicious since when I read his aura before I felt curiosity?

"So what brings you to Konohagakure?" Minato questioned.

"I want to get a job at the hospital to learn about medicine." I replied before releasing my mistake. I was supposed to be acting boring, that means boring answers. I mentally slapped myself on the head a million times. I had fallen into his trap. I shouted (inside my head of course) I wonder why he was being so silent. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"That sounds interesting." I heard Minato say.

"Hn" I muttered. Good that's boring. Keep this up Nariko, he'll find you boring in no time.

"Why?" He asked.

"To save peoples' lives. What else?" Again, another mental smack on the head. Damn me and my female talkative hormones. What's wrong with me? I've always been very good at keeping my mouth shout, why was now different? Cause you've always had your book read, a little voice said at the back of my head. That was true; I had always had my book to help me put the point across that I wasn't interested. Damn Minato for making me drop my book.

"That's really cool." I heard Minato say. I turned to look at him. He was looking straight back at me with a really cute smile on his face. Wait. Cute. Pull yourself together Nariko. But he was cute. No. Stop . It. Another metal slap.

"I'm glad to hear that, since most people don't think so." I replied back. Hey since I was doing really poorly I might as well give up.

"Really! Why's that?" He asked, confused by my replay.

"Well..." I paused, trying to find an easy way to say what I'm going to say. "I mostly get eeww why would you want to be around sick people, blah, blah, blah." I think that would be the best way to describe it.

"Wow, people must be really mean where you come from." He stated, giving me a sympathetic smile. A really cute sympathetic smile.

"They were." I thought, feeling very sad all of a sudden, remembering the past for me was not an experience I liked to do offend. In fact it was something I hated doing.

"Hey, wait, please don't cry, I'm sorry if I offended you." I heard Minato whisper softly. "It's different here in Konohagakure, every one respect medical-nins here." Before I could react I felt him sling his arm around my shoulders. A few days ago I found of flipped him over without a second thought. I guess Konohagakure was rubbing on me a bit. It was nice to have someone comfort me for once expect from my mum and I didn't even have that anymore. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad.

"It's not your fault." I said, wiping my watery eyes that threaten to leak any second, I quickly added "It's just old memories I would rather forget." Wait! What was I doing? Crying in some strangers shoulders. "This is not fair." I spoke suddenly, breaking the silence between us.

"What's not fair?" He questioned. Confusion on his face.

"I've been telling stuff about me but I know nothing about you." I announced.

"Well you haven't asked me any questions." I smiled, hugging my shoulder a bit more in a friendly gesture. I couldn't help but laugh. He was right, as unusual.

"I have a solution to solve both our problems." Minato assured, punching the air.

"What is it?" I asked curiosities.

"We could play a game of twenty questions." He continues to explain "That way we get to learn more about each other." I took his idea into consideration, taking my time to consider the idea.

"Ok. I'll go first."


	3. The Uzumaki family

Our game of twenty questions was interesting. Since he had already asked me two questions he only got to ask me eighteen questions. In the last ten minutes I had found out that Minato was the 6th Hokage eldest son, he had a little brother and sister. He was also 17 years old and was a high ranked ninja (I already knew he was a ninja since he had the hidden leaf symbol on his head) and he like to hanging out with his family and friends. Minato had learned that I was 15 but 16 in two months, I was a lonely child with no family and I like to read books whenever I had a chance, since I was unusually travelling a lot around villages using my healing skills to help me earn a little money, which was really cause I would usually help the person anyway. I found it hard to believe that was actually having a good time. We were joking and messing about. It was the first time I had felt truly relaxed and happy for a long time. I guess I had just made my first friend in Konohagakure.

"Well I believe this is where we part." I exclaimed suddenly, noticing we were just about to walk past the inn I was staying in. I was just going to give a quick wave and leave, until I saw the look on Minato face.

"You not staying in there are you." He asked shocked. I had to admit the place was pretty bad but hey it was cheap and it provided a bed and indoor plumbing. "There is no way I am letting you stay in that place." He said quickly. Not giving me any chance to argue. I did anyway.

"It's the only place I can afford, besides where else am I going to go. Your place." That last bit was meant to be a sarcastic joke.

"Yeah. Why not?" Cheered Minato.

"Wait it was a joke." I tried explaining but Minato wasn't having any of it.

"No, I insist, that's what friends are for." He declared. We argue for about half an hour outside the inn before I finally gave up and agreed. Well Minato agreed for me since he actually went into my room and packed all my stuff (which wasn't really hard since it was just a few clothes thrown over the bed) and somehow managed to get my money back for the room I had rented out. So now we were walking down to his house. I was feeling quite nervous since I wasn't really good with people. What if they don't like me? What if they're like everyone else and will call the local authorities to kick me out? But then I kept thinking about Minato, if he had accepted me in a few seconds then maybe his family will too. Then the original questions would pop back in to my head again, so one minute I was fine and the next I was freaking out. It wasn't until Minato nudge me and point that I released that we had arrived at Hokage Tower. Oh yeah. His dad was the Hokage, I was so going to be hunted down the second he saw me.

"Hello Minato-san." A shouted voice, which brought me out of my deep thoughts.

"Hello Guy-san." Minato shouted back. That's when I notice a tall, goofy looking man with really weird eyebrows and wearing what looked like a green spandex suit.

"Well young Minato, who is this beautiful young friend you have here?" Guy asked, nudging Minato playfully in the arm "She's not your girlfriend is she." I felt my face flush red with embarrassment when I heard this.

"Guy, I would like you to meet my _friend _Nariko, Nariko this is Guy." Minato explained. I should have been happy that he put meaning into the word _friend _but for some reason I felt insulted.

"Well, your _friend _is one hell of a beauty." Guy grinned, flashing his white teeth. Wait his teeth flashed, that's not humanly possible. Is it? Nevertheless, at his complement, my face turned a hundred shades of red. I had never been complement before, well not by a stranger and I was certainly no beauty. "Well, I'll see you at the family duo next week Minato." Before I could blink, Guy disappear like lightening down the street, it didn't take him long to disappear out of sight.

"Well...he seemed nice." I replied, not really knowing what to say.

"Yeah, Guy's great, a little weird, but great." He answered, smiling a little, laughing to himself a bit.

"What's so funny?" I asked, not understanding what was so funny.

"Oh, it was nothing, just thinking of an old memory." He continue to giggle at the memory he was thinking of. I could help but laugh to since I found Minato giggling really funny. Then Minato stopped laughing looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo and then he started laughing his head off, which made me laugh even more. We just kept laughing at nothing the whole way to his house.

"We're here." He managed to stutter out of his mouth, wiping the tears that had formed in his eyes. My throat dried up quicker than a small river in the Suna desert. Ok stay calm, not everyone is like the other people in the village, Minato proved that, plus the Hokage is Minatos father, he's probably a nice guy. Right! As soon as Minato held the door open for me I began making my escape plan. I tried to note down the doors and windows I could and remembering the direction of where the front door was (since it was a pretty big building) not to mention the amount of shinobi walking around the two lower floors. As we walked past them I could feel them turn around to stare at us, Minato seemed not to notice it at all. This made me feel like I was going crazy since I seemed to be the only one to notice. I mean I know he's the Hokage son and everything but still it's not that amazing.

"This is the first floor of the apartment building." I heard Minato speak suddenly. I looked around to see a brightly light hall, which was neatly decorated with pictures and ornaments. I follow Minato as we walked down the hallway. Every now and then I would take a quick look at the pictures, I could see pictures of different people in, some had Minato in with his family, some were individual pictures of the family and some looked like team pictures. I had to surpass a giggle when I saw one with Minato and another little boy where making funny faces in.

"Mum, Dad!" Minato shouted, opening the doors to check if someone was inside.

"Mummy's cooking dinner and daddies out training with Jiraiya ." A sweet little sang out from behind us. I swing around to find the cutest kid you could ever imagine. She was about four to five years old, with beautiful blue-black hair, kind delicate violet eyes and the cutest little pink cheeks. She also had the sweetest little skip as she as bouncing over to us and throwing herself into Minato's arms.

"Hello, little Hamako." Minato sang cheerfully back, swinging her around. A high shrieked giggle was all you could hear from the spinning blur.

"Minato! Who's the pretty girl?" Hamako, asked suddenly. When Minato had stop spinning her around, getting a good look at me for the first time. I could feel my face warming up again in embarrassment because someone else had called me _pretty_ today. I seriously wasn't use to this kind of treatment.

"Nariko. This is my little sister Hamako, Hamako. This is my friend Nariko she's going to be staying with us for a while." He said, pushing Hamako forward a bit to meet me.

"Hello." Was all I could think of to say. Since I'm not really used to meeting new people. She carried on looking at me, which made me a bit nervous that I started shuffling from foot to foot.

"You braid is really cool!" She shouted suddenly, bouncing up and down again.

"Ummm? Thank you." I babbled, shocked by this sudden outburst.

"Will you teach me how to do that?" She pleaded, staring at me with puppy dog eyes. Not even a cruel person could turn that cute little face.

"Yeah, sure." I cheered happily, finally feeling a bit more relaxed in this place. If they kids were like this, then the parents must be nice.

"Come on Nariko. I'll introduce you to mummy." And before I could do anything I was being dragged along by Hamako. I turn to look at Minato following us and shaking his head with a silly smile on his face. I was pulled up another flight of stairs where I suppose the kitchen was. I was then dragged down another hall way which was also decorated with family pictures. The smell of cooked rice caught my attention next; it smelt really good. My stomach was starting to grumble a bit reminding me it had been a while since I had eaten.

"Hey mummy! Minato brought his girlfriend over to meet you." Hamako shouted, my face brushed red and I could feel Minato stiffen behind me. A beautiful woman in her early thirties, carrying plates pushed herself through the door. She looked actually like Hamako, only her face was more defined.

"Please Hamako, not now I'm ..." She freezes as soon as her eyes lands on to my face. She suddenly drops the plates on to the floor. Out of instinct I sent charka through my body and to the plates, making them float in the air. With a single flip of my finger all the plates came towards me and placing them into my hands. I hadn't realise that everyone was staring at me until I looked back up.

"Eeerrr, here you go." I whispered, handing the plates back to Minatos mum. This seemed to shake her back to reality.

"Oh, I'm sorr. I don't know what came over me." She replied in a quiet voice. "I'm Hinata and you?" The lady seemed really nice but by the way she was staring at me and what had just happen I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

"Mum this is my friend Nariko." Minato finally spoke, saving me and adding. "Is it ok that she stays with us for a while?" When I looked at him, I nearly laughed since he seemed to be doing his own version of a puppy dog look. Which was cute.

"Oh, of course she may." Hinata said sweetly with a smile on her delicate face. "I'll just be getting supper finished. Hamako will you get the table set up and Minato will you show Nariko to the guest room." She smiled sweetly handing Hamako the pile of plates then vanishing in to the kitchen again. I watch Hamako walk off with the pile of plates before I felt something warm grabbed my hand gently.

"Come on." Minato announced, gently pulling me down the hall. "The guest bedroom is just down here." Stopping in front of a large door at the end of the corridor. "This is your room, my rooms right there so if you need anything just come and ask." Smiling he handed back my bag, which he had been carrying since the hotel and short me with a quick wave before disappearing down the hall. Slowly I enter my room. It was quite a big room to be a guest room, unless you're staying a five star hotel. It was plainly decorated with a soft cream carpet and white walls with a double bed, a desk and a wardrobe. Chucking my stuff on to the desk chair, I threw myself on to the double. It's so soft, I couldn't help but think, making realise just how tired I was.


	4. Questions

The sound of people shouting was the first thing that made me bolt up straight. At first I thought I was still in one of my nightmares, until I banged my head hard against the wall, showing me it wasn't a dream.

"I trusted you; you're supposed to be my friend!" I heard someone shout angrily nearby. What was going on out there? Then flashbacks of yesterday snapped through my mind. I looked down to see I was still wearing my pink skirt and white t-shirt, I must of fallen asleep as soon as I collapsed on to the bed. I thought to myself as I started playing with the blanket. Hang on a second. Looking at the blanket for a second time, I don't remember having this.

"Kakashi! Please calm down!" I heard a second unknown voice yell back. "Please, let us talk in my office." He said more calmly this time A sudden crash came a few steps away from outside my door. I was so shocked that I didn't do anything at first, until I heard a child crying. It sounded like Hamako, fury boiled through my veins as I heard Hamako cries get louder. How dare someone make Hamako cry? That's it! I screamed to myself, someone going to get their ass kicked. However before I had a chance the door burst open with Hamako flying in, slamming the door shut again behind her.

"Nariko!" Hamako shrieked as she flung her small arms around my neck, sobbing in to my shoulder.

"Hey, it's ok Hamako." I whispered gently, wrapping my arms around her, rocking back and forward a bit, whispering comforting words into her little eyes. Meanwhile the fighting continued.

"I had to hear it from Guy. Guy! Of all the people in the world." angry guy number one shouted.

"I know, but I only found out late last night and I still don't believe it myself since I haven't seen her yet!" Angry man number two shouted back. There was a uneasy silence for a minute, where it seemed that the other man was absorbing this new piece of information slowly.

"I want to see her!" The guy demanded suddenly.

"No!" The other guy commanded firmly.

"Excuse me!" The man spoke, outraged that his request had been denied so quickly.

"You're too angry to talk to anyone now" the other gut stated, softly he added "Please, take a walk get your head clear first and when I find out what's going on I'll call you straight away." There was another moment of still silence as this requested was processed. Finally the angry man replied.

"Fine" He admitted in a child like manner, followed what sounded like a poof and then more silence. I continued trying to sooth Hamako, running the argument through my head. When a loud knock came from the door.

"Come in" I said wiping away Hamako's snotty nose with an handkerchief I carried around with me. The door slowly creaked open to show a tall handsome in his mid-thirties. I could have mistaken him for Minato except he was a bit taller and his blonde hair was spiked up. He seemed to be analysing my appearance as well or maybe he was shocked by my appearance, it's not every day you meet a person with pink hair.

"Daddy." Hamako whined, scramble out of my lap and ran to him. "Why were you and Uncle Kakashi fighting?" his daughter moaned. This question seemed to bring him back to reality to what was going on around him.

"I'm sorry angel; Uncle Kakashi has been a bit stressed lately." He explained slowly, wrapping his arms around his little girl and picking her up into a cuddle.

"How about me we get some breakfast?" Hamako's dad spoke cheerfully, bouncing her up and down a little, turning Hamako back into her giggling self. At the reminder of food my stomach rumble loud in agreement to what the bright blonde haired man said. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around my stomach, hoping no one had heard. They heard.

"Seems like you could do with some breakfast as well." The man asked, giving me the exacted same smile that Minato had. My face blushed a bit. I only nodded, not trusting my numb tongue to speak.

"Ok. I''ll let you get wash and dress and meet you in the dining room." He smiled and disappeared out of the room with Hamako in his arms. Taking his advice I did what he said and had a quick shower, brushed my teeth and changed into a pair of dark blue demi-jeans and a long sleeve lilac t-shirt on. I quickly brushed my long wavy hair into a long high pony tail before leaving the room. It wasn't hard to find the dining room, since all you had to do was follow the smell of freshly baked pancakes. I was a bit nervous too enter but my stomach had different ideas and started grumbling again, telling me it was eat now, worry later. Taking a few deep breaths I gently pushed the door open. The room was very large and open, with giant glass windows drape with white silk, yellow walls and a creamy coloured carpet. In the very centre of the room lay a long (and I mean really long) oak table. At the very end of the table sat Hamako, joyfully eating a plate of pancakes.

"Nariko! Nariko! Come and sit next to me." She shouted cheerfully across the room, patting the cushion of the seat next to hers and waving her spoon around, flipping syrup on to the walls. I quickly rushed over, to stop her messing the walls up even more.

"Good for you to join us Nariko" I heard Hamako's dad say. I looked to see the Hokage carry a large plate of pancakes across the room and placing them on the table in front of me and Hamako. "Sorry, I'm afraid me and Hamako ate the first batch already. Please dig in." This must be some kind of trick. I thought. I never met someone so nice before, ever. But then again, everyone else in Konohagakure seemed super nice, except the angry man who was here earlier.

"Thank you." I said, scooping up on of the pancakes and smothering it with honey. It was quite funny listening to Hamako talk and eat at the same time. She spent ages talking about some random topic and then another random topic. Every now and then she stop to ask me questions, she was quite shocked to find out I had never had a dolly before. Ok, I did have a dolly once for my fourth birthday, only to have it stolen from me hours later and burned in front of my face and I'm pretty sure you're not meant to talk about those types of things in front of a four year old. Especially not little Hamako, I think I already temporized her enough for finding out I never had a doll before to play with. I mostly listen to the stories she told me about her everyday life and what she would do with her aunties and uncles and Grandma Tsunade, which were really funny stories I might add plus I seemed to lose count of how many aunties and uncles she had, three times now. I tried to show I was interested -even though I was actually interested I wanted to show it- so I asked a few questions now and then and even made a joke about Guy when she mentioned him, so after eating three pancakes. I was absorbed with my girlish talk, I hadn't realised that the Hokage had been watching us all the time and had not touched any of his delicious pan cakes.

"Minato said that you were interested in getting a job at the hospital." He spoke suddenly surprising me a bit causes it was the first time he had actually talked to me for a while.

"Yes sir, it's the main reason why I came to Konohagakure," I replied honestly, since it was the truth. He nodded slowly, he head laying on his hands in deep thought, absorbing this new piece of information like it was an important bit of info in an S-Class mission or something like that.

"How much do you know about medicine?" He questioned.

"I learned everything I know from my mother sir." I answered, suddenly spurious by the questions but then I thought he's the Hokage and I'm some stranger living in his house, of course he has the right to ask me some questions. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought I was an enemy spy, probably thinks I am a spy.

"Where is your family Nariko?" he asked with a serious look on his face. As he asked this I could feel a dark cloud float above my head.

"My mother was mur... I mean she dies six years ago sir." I stuttered quickly, changing the sentence because I remember that Hamako was in the room and was listening very carefully to mine and her father's conversation.

"What about your father or any other family members?" he ask kindly, seeing this was a tough subject to talk about.

"I've never had anyone else sir." I said calmly but I could feel the water gathering up in my eyes. In shame, I turned down my head, swiftly wiping away a tear before it could reach the top of my cheek, before looking up again with an emotionless look on my face. Like it never happen, I told myself over and over again.

"So you've been alone for six years corrected?" He observed, looking at me in the eyes now. Bright blue meeting dark opal.

"Yes sir, I survived by getting small jobs or living off the woodland. I tried using my medical skills to get a bit of money but I felt I was robbing people, so I did them for free instead." I answered, starting to feel exposed revealing my life that I didn't talk about very often. I could try lying but I was never been a good liar so there was really no point in trying. When I found the courage to look into the Hokage eyes again I saw deep sadness in them. Rubbing his temples on his forehead quickly before asking me his final question.

"What was your mother's name Nariko?" I was shocked by this sudden question, since I wasn't really expecting it.

"Her name was Sakura sir, Sakura Haruno." As soon as I said it I swear I saw for just a second a flick of some kind of emotion on the Hokages face. But then again I could be wrong since it disappeared as quickly as it came. There was a tense silence around the room for a very long time. Even little loud Hamako was silent as she sat staring at her pancakes.

"You know..." He began as he paused quickly, carefully thinking of what he was going to say next. "We could help you find the rest of your family if you like." I wasn't sure how to act with the sudden kindness to help find the rest of my family.

"Thank you, but no." I said firmly, not believing my own calm and boldness towards the Hokage. "I'm sure if my dad and other family members wanted me then I would know them." This is what I believed, since if my dad wanted to know me he would be with me. I pretty sure I wasn't kidnapped since I had inherited my mother's pink hair and I'm pretty sure he's not dead since my mother would have told me. I believe the Hokage was about to debate my decision until the door squeaked open and Minato, Hinata and another little boy, who was about ten years old with Hinatas dark purple-blue hair and his father bright blue eyes shuffled in to the room looking a bit dirty.

"Hey Sleeping Beauties finally awake." Minato mocked me cheerfully as he sat down next to me. Scooping up a plate and grabbing one of the pancakes from the pile.

"Minato! You've already had breakfast." Whined Hamako, giving daggers at her eldest brother.

"But me and Jiraiya are growing boys and need the extra food. Right Jiraiya." exclaimed Mianto turning to his little brother for support in his argument.

"Yeah." Jiraiya mumbled so quietly that even a dog would have trouble hearing it. With Minato in the room, the room seemed to return back to normal. Everyone was happily talking to one another (except Jiraiya who seemed to be really shy.) about one story or how well Jiraiya training was going -which made him even more shy- and then Minato and Hamako got into a silly argument about how important it was to share the food. Watching this brought back memories of me and mum talking non-stop under the starry sky.

"Nariko dear are you all right." Hinata soft voice broke through my thoughts, making me realised that I had been crying cause I could feel the tear drops running down my face. Oh shit! I screamed at myself and my stupid emotions.

"Sorry." I mumbled. "Just hay fever." I know, stupid excuse but I couldn't think of anything else to come up with. Before anyone else could ask if anything was wrong, I made some excuse to go to the toilet. I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom in my room so one had notice me, trying to calm down I grabbed on to the side of the sink, focusing myself to steady my breathing. I looked up into the mirror to look at myself. It had been a long time since I had actually looked into a mirror, the last time I remember my face I was about nine at the time, the same time that my mother died. I had lost everything that day, my mum, my friend, my joy. Everything lost, even the money she left seemed useless to me. In fact the only time I used it was yesterday to afford the inn, I finally decide to use it to start a new life in Konohagakure. I looked at myself in the mirror again to see if anything had changed. Yes a lot has changed, I was no longer the little girl with the chubby face and stick like figure body, who always had twigs stuck in her hair from training or playing a game. No, there was someone else now. I was a young woman with a slim figure and well portioned curves , a well defined face, a delicate nose with full cherry lips, beautiful dreamy coloured eyes and long wavy pink hair. No more messing about and living off other people. I am strong. I am independent. I am Nariko Haruno.


	5. Inner Battles

I was surprised that I hadn't run a hole through the floor yet as I had been pacing around the room a hundred times now. I couldn't decide what to do. One idea was to return to my nomadic way of life but then that meant leaving Minato and Hamako behind and I had already started to feel close to them. The second idea was to stay here and try and get a job at the hospital but I would feel like a free loader and there's the possibility that as soon as I made friends they'll leave me when they find out about my abilities. Could I risk it, staying here? Even if there is one in a million chance they might accept. I knew the answer would be no as soon as I asked the question. I couldn't bear to feel the loneliness again. It was too horrible the first time. Knowing this, I had chosen what decision I was going to pick but I need to prepare a few things first.

I swiped away the nervous sweat drops that hang down my face. Even though I was sure I wasn't notice because of an invisibility jutsu I had perfected a few years, I was still nervous that someone had spotted me. I had left as soon as I had packed my thing and had left a letter and a little something to say thank you for the kindness. My whole body was in debate over the action I had just taken. My heart screaming to go back this might be your last chance to find happiness, while my head was shouting back no this is the logical choice, there's no way you can be hurt this way.

**Oh yeah, like you're not kicking yourself in the head for already losing the first people that have been a friend to you for the first time in your life.**

Hey! What are you doing here? I thought I got rid of you when I was ten years old.

**Nope. I've just been waiting for the prefect opportunity to come and talk to you again.**

Talk! Yeah right, more like annoy.

**Well, yeah that too.**

Now seriously what are you doing here?

**I'm here to stop you making a big mistake.**

And what is that?

**THAT YOU'RE LEAVING BEHIND THE ONLY HAPPINESS YOU HAD IN SIX YEARS!**

Oh yeah, what made you think I wasn't happy before?

**Dude! I'm you. Remember.**

Yeah, well... It doesn't matter anyway; they would have thought I was a freak like everyone else.

**Do you really think that?**

Yes

**That's kind of mean to say, especially about Minato.**

...

**Exactly, so are you going to turn around now?**

No.

**Why not?**

Do you really think I could manage having my heart torn apart again?

**...**

Didn't think so.

**This is not over.**

Well until you decide to come up with a better argument. SHUT UP.

**...**

Thank you.

Great, just great, my inner Nariko has decided to make a comeback. Now I know I'm turning crazy. But she was right; I shouldn't of judge Minato like the other people I've met in my life. He's just so ... different.

**Told you so.**

I thought I told you too shut up.

**Sorry, shutting up now.**

Ok its official now. I am crazy.

**I could have told you that 15 years ago.**

Ggggggrrrr

**...**

Good.

I am doing the right thing; I thought to myself and not inner Nariko. This is the best solution for all of us. Me, Minato, the Hokage and anyone else I met. So why do I feel so sad? Oh why can't I just do one thing that doesn't make me tired or angry or sad for once? Is it really that hard for me to make a decision and be happy with it? I must have been born under an unlucky star when I was born. Maybe I should turn back I mean maybe I could give it a try... No you're already three miles away from Konohagakure it's too late to turn back now, they've probably found my letter by now and have respected my decision, it's too late to turn back now. So I forced myself to keep walking, even when the midday sun was burning down on me. Why the hell did I wear jeans, boots and a long sleeved t-shirt in the Fire Country in the middle of summer? This sucks. Nevertheless, I kept moving afraid that I would turn back to the village and find everyone mad out me or even forgotten about me. Forgetting about me would be the worse, at least if they were angry at me it would have shown they cared. So I didn't stop, not even when night started to show. I didn't want my nightmares now; I couldn't handle them right now. I could feel my eye lids beginning to close but I wouldn't let them, I had to get away. Far, far away. I was glad I was use to running on no energy, otherwise I would have stopped closer to the Konohagakure gates and the fact I wouldn't be here today without it. Kamai, I miss Minato's stupid jokes now.

"Nariko!" Minato voice shouted out. Wow I can even hear his voice. "Nariko!" I know I've already stated this but I am going to say it again to make myself clear. I am crazy. "NARIKO!" Hang on a second, that's not coming from my head, then where did it come from. "Nariko." There it was again, only this time barely a whisper. I turned around slowly, scared that if I turned around nobody would be there. Instead I find Minato and two others standing behind him.

"Minato! What are you doing here?" I shouted at him frustrated. Half of me was angry at myself for not running when I had the chance and him for following me. The other was happy to see his face again.

"What am I doing here?" He yelled, I think partly shocked that I actually asked the question. "Coming to find you and find out why the fuck you left." His body shaking violently with anger.

"Didn't you read my letter?" I asked, no sure what was happening.

"Oh I read your letter." He snarled, rummaging through his pocket to find something. I took this moment to examine the other two people behind him. The one on the left was a tall man in his early thirties with glowing pale skin, dark black hair and narrow black eyes and a stubborn frown line to match. The other was a woman also in her thirties, she was a bit shorter than the other man and had blonde hair placed into two pig tails, with honey coloured eyes. She two had a frown line but it was more firm like she was trying to control her anger. They seemed to be examining me as well. Why was everyone doing that lately? I wonder to myself. My attention snapped back to Minato when I saw him pull out a folder up piece of paper. "Would like to explain this to me?" He demanded chucking the piece of paper in front of my face. I opened it to find it was the letter I had left behind. It read:

_Dear Hokage-san, Mrs Uzumaki , Minato, Jiraiya and little Hamako,_

_I thank you for your kindness and sorry for disappearing like this and not saying good bye. But you see, I have realised that I cannot start a new life in Konohagakure like I wanted too. For you see I only wanted to work, sleep and work. But then I met you and for the first time in my life I was happy for the first time in my life for a long time, you may ask yourself. Why would she leave then when she's so happy? The answer to this is a long story but I will try to shorten it because I feel you have the right to know. All of my life, and I mean from the very day I was born, I have been born with strange abilities that normal humans do not have, because of this I have been forced to move all over the world to escape the harsh words, the hard stones and my personal favourite the burning block. I was afraid that if you found out then you would also hunt me down like so many people before you have tried to do. But it was not the actual hunting I was afraid of; it was the bonds I was afraid to build with you would be snapped in half and leave me dead inside. I have already lost someone important in my life, I do not believe... No, I know I cannot survive my heart being ripped apart again, since it has already been torn apart already. Again I thank you for your kindness and leave you this money since I really have no use for it. This gift I leave you is only a small portion of the kindness you have given me. I bless you a good life._

_Sincerely _

_Nariko Tsunade Haruno_

I read through it again to make sure there was nothing I was missing.

"I'm not sure what I am supposed to explain?" I finally commented; totally confuse what was going on around me.

"Well first off..." Minato shouted, his fury flying into the atmosphere and piercing me a hundred times more painful than a thousand knives stabbing me all over my body. "You can explain why didn't tell us how you felt, you could have explained why you left little Hamako crying because you didn't at least say good but, you could at least..." He stopped his angry fading and turning into sadness as continue yelling at me for all the horrible stuff that I had done. "How could you compare me and my family to the monsters in your letter?" He managed to breath, staring at me with tense and accusing eyes. I couldn't help but stand there horrified. Not about what he said because he was right but at the painful thing my actions had caused. He was right. Why didn't I just tell them face to face? At least it would have been the most descent thing to do. Nariko you stupid, stupid girl. It was then that I saw the glint of metal flying towards us as top speed.

"Minato look out." I cried, throwing myself in front of him and the five shurikens. 


	6. An old enemy

I didn't cry out when the five shurikens hit my body, even when I felt the fresh blood leak slowly down my skin and shirt. My body had automatically turned into attack mode. I quickly scanned the darkness, sending a little bit of charka into my eyes so I could find the enemy in the night, my eyes turned on to night-vision mode. It didn't take me long to find the two clocked figures hidden in the trees closets to us, pulling out a kunai's from my pouch and throwing them with direct precision as the metal hit the two targets. But suddenly they both disappeared in to a puff of smoke leaving behind two logs. Damn! A substitution jutsu. Then where did they disappear too. It only took me less than a quarter of a second to pick up the enemies' charka signals. They were after Minato, I screamed at myself as I felt them running towards Minato. I quickly sent charka down to my feet to help me jump over Minato and bloke one of the enemies' attack. My heart froze like ice as I saw who the attacker was. He his black clock decorated with the red clouds swiftly flew in the night's breeze and his orange painted mask shone brightly in the moonlight. This was the man who I hated most in the world. This was the man who took the one good thing away from me. This was the man that took my mother from me. My mind turned back to Minato again I realised he and his two teammates start the fight with the second man. If they thought they were going to take Minato away from me too they were so wrong.

"Well, well, well, we meet again little one." He smirked; he one eye shown blood red through is mask, as he recongised me. "It looks like we found two things we have been looking for tonight." I could hear the other battle commence behind me. I could hear the crash as the second man just barely dodge the woman with the blonde hair, making the floor shake breath us and leaving a huge dent where the sword had connected with the floor. I could hear Minato and his two teammates trying to reach me but the enemy was holding them off pretty well for someone that was out numbered. I push the masked man away, grabbing two kunai's and throwing them at him. The man easily dodges them but I already expected that, using this opportunity I ran full force into him knocking him into the woods. He tries to kick me around the head but because of one of my special abilities I could already see the attack coming and easily dodge, sending chakra into my fist I punched him in the stomach sending him into the nearest tree. He should have smashed into the tree but instead he phrase right through it, disappearing into the forest darkness.

"Well it seems I've underestimated you." His cry echo around me from the darkness. I took this moment to absorb the place around me. I had smash him into a clearing, two miles from where the road was. The trees stood tall over me as a kind of protection. The moons sliver light made the place glow with a ghostly presence. I suddenly sensed him running around in the safety of the trees, to attack me from my left, I was ready for him and his shadow clone he had just summoned, his clone ran at me first, ready to land a punch but I had already sensed what the masked man was going to do next. Waiting until the last moment I twirled around him, before he realised what had happen I had already snapped the clones' neck, making disappear into smoke. Then attack after attack of shurikens and kunai's, came flying at me as I grab a kunai out of my own porch, dodging the attacks. I watched him as he raced around the safety of the trees, waiting for the right moment to strike. Sending my charka out to a large log laying around I moved it in front of the masked mans path. He was so busy attacking me with his kunai's that he didn't notice the log until after he tipped over it. I used this moment to send an exploding tag in his direction, where he lay on the ground. Kaboom! I managed to throw myself back a safe distance in time to escape the explosion.

"Haha." Mask man's voice laughed through the smoke as he walked out of it unharmed. "Your forgetting I can phrase through things" he mocked as he stood a few feet away from me. "Why don't you just give up little girl and come with me? You can't win" I snorted. It's pretty obvious that I'm the one totally kicking ass here and I already know what little trick you have next up your sleeve. I thought to myself, still in my fighting stance. Seeing that I wasn't going to come quietly the man sighed to himself. "Fine we'll do this the hard way." He snapped. His blood red eye in fall fury as it blazed, spinning around and around. I couldn't help but laugh at myself. I wonder how long it's going to take him to work out his techniques not going to work. I watched him as he tried to get his genjutsu working but was having no effected.

"What?" He shrieked, as he finally realised that his technique was not going to work on me.

"Your type of techniques do not work on me mask man." I shouted, still holding my defensive stance up ready for his next attack. Suddenly the masked man started laughing.

"Oh, the Master was right about you." He shrieked, sounding half insane.

"What do you mean? Who is this master?" I order, never taking my eyes off him as I knew his attack was come in twenty seconds.

"That you were special, that when we had you as our weapon we would be the most powerful men alive." He commented, shaking the dirt off his cloak. It was nearly time. I thought, using these moments I used it to summon the spiritual energy around me. Five, four, three, two, one. The mask man rushed forward, quicker than anything you could imagine CLASH! Got you. I cheered to myself as held the mask man away from me, pure purple energy flicker from my body like a mystical energy, which it was. He was fast I admitted, twisting his arm around more but I'm much faster.

"How!" The masked man cried as he tried to yank himself free from my grip. "I should have phrased right through you." Still scream in desperations as he continued to struggle to pull free.

"Nothing can escape the Earth's energy." I hissed. It was time to finish this. Once and for all. I concerted as I sent charka and energy into a whizzing ball swirl dangerously fast in my right hand.

"What is that?" The masked man screamed as he saw the ball of energy continue to speed up faster and faster.

"What? This!" I yelled back, holding it up a bit more. "This is your ticket to hell." And without a second thought I crashed the ball of energy onto his face. The ball burned through is skin, destroying every single cell in his body. I hadn't realised that his body had turned into dust, until I felt the sand running through my fingers. Great now that's over time to heal... My whole body collapse suddenly. Oh crap, I cursed myself. I quickly sent charka flowing through my body to check what the damaged was. Damn not good! I thought. I hadn't realised that two of the five kunai's that attacked me earlier had hit two major arteries in my body. I had already lost to pints of blood and was losing more by the second. I tried to send charka to the wounds but was so weak for the fight and walking non-stop without food all day had finally caught up to me and was making me feel to dizzy to concerted. Well life was great while it lasted. I thought. But wait. What about Minato and his friends? Were they all right? I began to panic I was thought of the other mans sword colliding with the floor again. There's no way I can sense them, I can't concerted my chakra enough. Useless I don't use charka to sense them. Closing my eyes and drawing on every single piece of energy that was still in my body I called upon the spirits around the area.

"_What is it my child_?" A ghostly woman's voice asked from the distance.

"Please, my friends and I were fighting in a battle and we were separated. Are they alright." I pleaded, not knowing how long I could keep this up.

"_Do not worry my child, you friends are safe and are looking for you as we speak_." The woman replied. Oh thank you! I wanted to scream to the heavens but I losing so much blood and energy that I couldn't even keep my head off the floor. Well it's too late for me now. Might as well get to sleep. I told myself, as I finally relaxed my body ready to leave the pain behind and meet mum again. _"Not so fast my Child_." The woman whispered as I felt cold numbness starting to take over my body. "_The world's not finished with you yet_."


	7. Forgivness

This is so not fair. I'm pretty sure when you die your meant to have no pain. Then why is my body screaming in pain all over? Again this is so not fair. Then a flash back of an early memory popped into my mind.

_The sky was a sliver grey; it added to the gloomy atmosphere that had all ready surrounded me._

"_Come on mum this is boring!" A young me cried out as I had ran to the top of the tree and back five times now. My mother was leaning against a tree with a book in front of her face; her face showed a slight smile on her cherry pink lips, her long pink hair fell into curls down her back and her green eyes sparked with a glint of laughter. I stared at her big beautiful eyes. Why didn't I inherit her eyes? I wonder to myself. Why did I have dark ones instead? _

"_You may whine all you want." She commented "But how else are you going to get prefect charka control useless you don't practice controlling it." With that she lifted her book up in front of her face again and started to read again._

"_But I've already be up and down the tree five times without fail and on my first try." I shouted back, getting annoyed with her. She was only doing this so she could read her stupid book instead of teaching me a new medic justu. "Plus my feet are starting to hurt." I complained, sitting down and trying to get out all the pieces of tree that had got stuck to my feet._

"_Pain is a good thing." She commented, as she walked over to me and started getting the bits of wood out of my other foot._

"_Why is pain a good thing mummy?" I asked confused. She looked at me and gave me one of sweet sad smiles._

"_Because my little firefly." She started, kissing the top of my head and started to pull out the twigs and leaves that had got stuck in my hair. "Pain, shows us we are still alive."_

I relaxed for a minute, thinking of the last bit over and over again. If what my mum said was true, I stated to myself. Then am I still alive. It was impossible, I thought. I had already lost too much blood already, the last thing I remembered I was laying on the cold ground dying after my fight with the masked man. Anger flash through me as I finally remember him. Well he can't harm anyone else now, not even take a mothers life from a child. This thought made me a little better, but I was still sad, even though I had killed the man who had killed my mother she still wasn't here. I guess she's never coming back. With that last thought I drifted into a dream like state.

When I first released I was still alive, was when my brain started to absorb the surroundings around me. It was a plain white room with a single bed that I was laying on in the middle of the room. The beeping sound from a monitor beside made me realise I was in a hospital room. I tried to move my body but it was so painful and stiff.

"I see you've finally awake." A voice snapped from the other side of the room. Despite my bodies protests I forced my body to sit up. I looked to see the woman with the light blonde hair that had been with Minato, standing in the doorway. "We were starting to get worried that you wouldn't wake up." She commented, as she walked in and started checking a clipboard on the end of my bed.

"Where am I?" I asked trying to figure out where I was.

"You're back in Konohagakure." She replied, placing the board back on the bed. "You lost a lot of blood and haven't eaten in three days. I'll send someone to bring you food." And with that she left, like she was trying to get out as fast as possible. I tried to reach the end of the bed to see what condition I was in, however, my body screamed and shouted at me to stop moving. After fives minutes of pure torture I had managed to unclip my charts from the end of the bed and began to read through. Oh well, I thought, as I flipped through the pages. It could of be worse I suppose. I was so absorbed in my reading that I hadn't notice someone watching me from the doorway.

"Uuumm excuse me." Whispered a small voice. I looked up from my charts to Jiraiya standing in the door way with a plate of food in his hand.

"Oh, hello Jiraiya." I called to him reaching back to the end of the bed and placing the charts back. "Please come in." I said kindly, patting the side of the bed to come and sit. Slowly Jiraiya walked through the room and placed the tray on my lap.

"Grandma Tsunade is going to be angry that you've been moving around when you should have been resting." He indicated, by pointing to the sweat drops on my head, which had developed when I had forced my body to lean over and grab the clip board.

"Well, let's just call it my personal work out for today then." I smiled, starting to eat one of the sandwiches that I had on my plate. Jiraiya watched me eat my food in silence, probably there to make sure I ate all my food. I wonder why he was so silent compared to his other siblings.

"Nariko-san." Jiraiya muttered suddenly.

"What?" I stammered with a large spoonful of yogurt in my mouth. Jiriaya stared at the ground not saying anything. I hope I didn't sound mean, I thought.

"Did you kill Madara?" Jiraiya cried suddenly. I was so shock by the question that I nearly choked on my own spoon.

"Did I kill who?" I stuttered out, patting my chest, trying to get the yogurt down.

"Madara, the Akatsuki member with the orange mask." He commented. I didn't know who was talking about until he mentioned the orange mask.

"Eeeeerrrr..." I was stomped, how do you tell a ten year old that you killed someone. "Yeah." I answered, hey it was either a yes or no answer. How else was I supposed to tell him? No Jiraiya I didn't kill him but I did smash a ball of spiritual energy into his face and burn him until he turned to dust. I thought a short answer with no description was a better answer. Meanwhile, Jiraiya was silently taking this into consideration.

"That is totally awesome!" He shouted, jumping out of his seat. Wow! He actually was like his brother and sister, just a little bit shy. A sudden pike of a familiar charka that had just entered the building had just entered the building. Uh oh! How am I going to get out of this? Maybe I could make a run for it.

**Oh yeah cause that went so well the last time. **

What are you doing back?

**Just reminding you that last time you ran away, you ended up here.**

Oh, yeah.

**So, you might as well talk to him. **

I hate it when you're right.

**Really because I love it when I'm right.**

While I waited from him to appear, I tried to distracted myself by asking Jiraiya questions about his training and himself. I actually enjoyed talking to Jiraiya because he didn't have a boring voice and was very enthusiastic about talking about his training methods he, Minato and his father had come up with. In fact I was having such a good time that I forgot about the reason I was so nervous in the first place, until he spoke.

"So, how are you feeling?" Minato asked, leaning against the door frame. I said nothing; I couldn't bare to even look at him because of the pain I had caused both him and his family. Instead I stared at my hands laying on my lap. There was silence in the room, neither I, nor Minato or Jiraiya spoke. "Jiraiya, can you excuse us for a moment." Minato requested. I was hoping Jiraiya would say no but instead I heard his little footsteps walk through the room and echo into the hallway. As soon as Jiraiya had left, Minato walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "You know you haven't answered any of my questions from the other night." Now usually I would come up with some sarcastic joke about how I was knocked out for three days but I wasn't in the mood today. Plus it wasn't really the time to be joking around.

"Has does I'm a very sorry selfish, big-headed idiot who's head should be used as a toilet brush because I'm completely useless to even exist." I replied, still staring at my hands. I suddenly felt a warm gentle hand on my face, lifting my chin up so both our eyes met.

"Well that explains a lot." He chuckled, letting his hand drop from my face, a strange warm tickle was still were his hand had been. "Except that description doesn't fit you at all." His warm smile spreading even further across his face.

"Excuse me..." I began before Minato put up his hand to stop me.

"You see your not big-headed because I never seen you go around saying everything you do is right, you're not an idiot because you are really smart and you're not selfish because you threw yourself in front of five shurikens for me."He finally finished, waiting for my reply.

"Well you may think that but that still doesn't make me feel better, since I always seem to hurt people no matter what I do. I. Am. A. Monster. If you don't think I'm like that then what the hell am I" I snapped back, tears running down my face from the anger I had kept in me for so long. I knew I shouldn't have snapped back like that but I just felt so angry. I quickly regretted what I said since I saw the sad look in Minato's eyes. How could I be forgiven so easily? I don't deserve this, I should be force to run around the village with 500kg weights to drag me down for a week with no food or water. To make sure I didn't shout at Minato again I buried my head in my pillow, shouting every curse I knew that existed, then I tried saying every curse I knew backwards. After that my body calm done, but I still kept my head in my pillow so Minato couldn't see me weeping into it. Suddenly I felt Minato's firm hand gently grip my shoulder.

"Nariko, you want to know what I see." He emphasized, lightly rubbing my shoulder for comfort. I wanted to say no because of what he might say but I didn't want to be mean to him. "I see a beautiful, intelligent, independent young woman who has had a lot of pain and loneliness in her life." I turned to him, not sure I was hearing him correctly. He was smiling at me, making more tears flow out of my eyes. Minato started wiping the tears away from eyes with his thumb, however, he was far from finished. "Despite what you might think of yourself, you are a good caring person who always puts people first, whether it's you healing someone with no food in your stomach to putting yourself in front of five shurikens to save someone you just barely met. Now it's time for someone to be looking after you." There was silence after this as I tried to process the words that had just been spoken through my head.

"Thank you." I whispered, not sure what else to say. Minato leant forward and grabbed my cold hands into his warm one, sending a electric spark up my arm.

"Anytime." He smiled back squeezing my hand a bit more. A cough from the door way made me and Minato jump apart quicker than you could say 'Marshmallows.' My hand suddenly felt very lonely with Minato's hand gone. I turned to see who rudely interrupted us. It was the Hokage and he wasn't alone.


	8. The truth and nothing but the truth

"I'm sorry to interrupt but may we have a minute with Nariko please Minato." His father order in a nice way, Minato simply nodded and began to walk out of the room but before he left he shot me a smile and thumbs up. I quickly shot a smile back before he left the room. My attention was now focused on the large group of people that had now entered the room. Three of them I already knew. One was the Hokage, the other two was the blonde woman that had talk to me earlier and the man with the black eyes and black hair. The other three I didn't know. There were two men and another woman. The woman was very beautiful, she had long stunning pale blonde hair tied back into a high ponytail, and she had a very attractive figure and blue dreamless eyes. One of the men was a very pale looking man with a lean build and an emotionless face. The last man in the room was also a tall man. It was difficult to tell how old he was since most of his face was covered in a mask and his left eye was covered with his fore band protector. The only way you would know about his appearance was his grey hair. I must be in trouble because there is no way a lot of people would be here to tell me good news.

"Nariko." The Hokage called, trying to get my attention. It worked since my head snapped back to him. "Nariko because of the certain constancies we need to ask you some personal questions." I nodded in agreement. They must want to know about my battle with this ... Madara guy and also what I had left in the letter. "Well let's start with what we already know, so you are not forced to repeat anything. Ok." I nodded, putting on an emotionless face on and hoped I was all cried out. "Ok, you have already told me that you've been by yourself for six years since your mother's death, which her name was Sakura Haruno, which you also learned all of your medical skills from plus you have no other family that you know about. Correct."He paused, waiting for me to correct him or to continue.

"That's right Hokage." I replied, concentrating on keeping face blank. When I didn't say anything else the Hokage started questioning me.

"Nariko when we were talking about your mother before I believe you were going to say something else except from the fact that she had died." He waited for me to answer.

"My mother was murdered sir." I answered, holding my face together. As soon as I said that I swear I could feel the atmosphere go very tense. Suspicious by this sudden change in the atmosphere, began to read everyone's aura, everyone in the room show a tense aura, mixed with pain and wonder.

"Do you know who murdered?" The Hokage commented, keeping a calm face, despite the fact that I knew his and everyone else's emotions were in a mess.

"It was the man I killed three nights ago, I believe his name was Madara." I thought, repeating the conversation in my head with Jiraiya to make sure I had the name right. The tense in the atmosphere grew even my, making me feel a bit unsettled.

"Where you out seeking revenge when you came too Konohagakure?" He questioned.

"No!" I cried out louder then I should have. How could he think of me like that? Surely he knew someone bent on revenge would live a lonely life. Oh, wait, I live a lonely life. "I came to Konohagakure to start a new life." My voice level again.

"How do you feel about killing the man who killed your mother?" requested the man with the dark hair and the dark eyes. What a weird question to ask? I thought looking at him now, taking a while to think about the question.

"Sadder I guess." I responded. Suddenly releasing the effect the battle had left on me.

"Why is that?" The grey haired man asked, staring at me very intensely.

"I remember my mum telling me a story once about an old friend, who was bent on revenge because the person had wiped out his whole clan..." I paused trying to remember if I got the story right. "I remember the story scared me so much I refused to ever take revenge on anyone that ever hurt me." I stopped for a moment because I could feel the shield in my face was faulting. I took a few deep breathes before I continued. "Killing the masked man made me release that I had not what I swore I would never do, it didn't make me feel better and it didn't bring my mother back. Revenge doesn't solve anything." I looked up at the black haired man to see him looking away, like I had hurt him badly.

"Let's talk about your letter Nariko." The Hokage spoke suddenly, dragging my attention back to him. The Hokage rummaged through his pocket to pull out a very dirty piece of paper that I recognise as my as my letter. "It says here your full name is Nariko Tusnade Haruno, can you tell us where you got your middle name from." His head snapped back up from the paper to look at me. What's so important about my middle? I wanted to ask but I kept my mouth shut.

"I believe my mother said it was from her mentor who she thought was like a mother to her, the woman taught her everything she knew about medic jutsu, so she named me in honour of her." I replied. Before I knew it, the wall to the back of the room suddenly explored, leaving a huge hole in it.

"Sorry." The honey eyed woman muttered to the Hokage before turning back to me. "Don't let my little stunt frighten you." She smiled sweetly back like nothing had just happened. To be honest I think I was already scared of her.

"What are these strange abilities that have made you different from everyone else?" Minato questioned, changing the topic again. Kamai, this one's going to take a while.

"Well, I can move things with my mind." Was the first ability I blurted out.

"Can you give us a demonstration?" The dark eyed man asked. I quickly searched the room for something to lift, in the end I force charka into the food still left on the try and lifted them in the air. I wasn't sure what I was meant to do I just did some stunts I learned to do with the food before placing them back on the tray.

"What else can you do?" observed the emotionless man. I sighed to myself, thinking I should get my craziest out of the why.

"I can talk to the dead." I quickly stated, waiting for the atmosphere to change to disgust but instead turned into wonder.

"Prove it" demanded the dark eyed man. Rolling my eyes at the man's annoying rude behaviour, I close my eyes and started to slow down my breathing, calling the spirits near to me.

"There's an old woman called Saki Hina who died last week and is trying to find her lost cat." I stated opening me eyes. Everyone turned to the blonde haired woman who smashed the wall earlier. Her face had turned very pale.

"She's right." She stated, looking at me. "There was an old woman by that name who died of old age last week."

"But before she did she wouldn't shut up about finding her stupid cat." The attractive lady added. Everyone turned to stare at me in shock horror. Alright, here come the accusations and then trying to kill me, it was nice being here while it lasted.

"Is that all you can do?" The Hokage questioned. What? That's it. No get out of my village speech, seriously why can't you be normal people for once, at least that way I'll know what's going to happen. Kamai! My head hurts.

"Well I can kind of summon this type energy." I said finally, if I told them about my other powers I might as well tell them about this one.

"What do you mean type of energy?" Enquired the grey haired man.

"Well..." I began, stopping to think what I was going to say. "It's kind of difficult to explain." I said finally, I still had trouble figuring out what the energy was myself.

"Is it possible you can show us like the other two." Asked the attractive blonde woman. What am I a circus freak or something to you people? I wanted to shout back. Despite my annoyance I began calling upon the energy around me, letting it swirl into a spinning ball in the middle of my palm. I started to feel very tired suddenly. Even though I was tired I knew how dangerous it was too late go of the energy quickly, instead I pushed the energy slowly back into the air. It wasn't until, I placed all of the energy safely back into the air that I allowed myself to relax, sweat pouring down my brow.

"Alright that's enough questions today, time for my patient to get some rest." ordered the blonde hair lady, I could feel myself falling over from exhausting but I could fall off the bed someone caught me and placed me back on it.

"Thanks Hokage-san" I managed to stumble out, my breathing was heavy for summoning too much energy in my condition. My vision was a bit blurry but I could still see the cheeky smile on the Hokages face.

"No problem and please just call me Naruto." He replied, his smile spread even further across his face. I felt my breathing begin to slow down. I looked over to see the blonde lady's cool hands pressed over my chest, sending green healing charka into me.

"Ok then." was the last thing I said before falling into a deep sleep.


	9. Flowers

Next time I woke up I found myself in a different room from the one before. How do I know this you might ask, even though the room looks actually the same as before? Well for one thing there wasn't a giant hole in the wall. The flowers on the bedside table were what caught my attention next. It was a big bouquet of different coloured daisies, attached to them was a little card. Sitting myself up (and this time not screaming in protest) I pulled the card of the little string and opened it.

_Hey Nariko,_

_If you're reading this, then that means I have been dragged out of the hospital by either Grandma Tusnade getting annoyed by my presence or by Hamako because she wants to play dollies, so instead I left these flowers in my place. I know there not the best substitute because I hear flowers are great listeners so if you need someone to talk, the flowers are there for you._

_From your good friend,_

_Minato Uzumaki _

I read the note over and over again, laughing at it every single time, especially the bit about Hamako dragging him off to play dollies, Minato playing dollies. That's hilarious! Minato you really know how to cheer a girl up when's she down. Placing the card back on the table, I settle myself back on to the bed to enjoy the bit of quiet to myself. Man it's stuffy in her; I thought after a few minutes of daydreaming, pushing the covers off my, I jumped out of bed and walked over to the window. Grabbing the handle, I gently pushed the window open, to feel the warm autumns breeze slap me gently on the face. The fresh air I reflected, breathing the air in deeply, I can't believe I'm actually starting to miss it. The sun's rays felt good too, it looks like a beautiful day to be outside, and too bad I'm stuck in here. Even though I was stuck inside the view was great, I never knew Konohagakure looked so beautiful. I can't remember the last time I felt this type of peace, I guess when mum was alive. I wish you here to see this mum, its so breath taking. What am I even doing here? I shouted to myself suddenly, I don't belong with normal people, how I can honestly look people in the eye and say I'm fine when I not every day? Why isn't mum here to see this with me? Why is everything changing so quickly? I can't handle this.

"Doubting yourself again I see." Called a warm gentle voice from behind me, I was so absorbed in my own thoughts (as usual) that I didn't hear Minato walk up behind me.

"How long have you been there?" I asked, turning myself around to face him.

"Only for a minute or two."Minato replied, giving me a kind smile. I couldn't help but give a small smile back, he was so sweet.

**Cute too.**

Oh no, not you again.

**Hey I'm just saying.**

For goodness sake, for all the things to think about. Why did I have to have a second personality?

"You want to talk about." Minato deep voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"Talk about what." I answered, not sure what he was just talking about for a second.

"What you were just thinking about?" He stated, his face turning to one of concern, oh yeah, that. I did want to tell him but what gave me the right to do so, I mean his family had done so much for me and I had done nothing for them. I must have been silent for too since Minato added. "It's not good to keep all of your emotions hidden, that's why I left the flowers." He pointed over to the flowers on the bedside table while placing his hand on my shoulder at the same time and squeezed it slightly for reassurance. I chewed my bottom lip thinking of his advice but decided against it.

"Nah, I would hate to bore you with my boring, girly emotions." I responded happily, giving him a big grin and it wasn't a fake grin like I usually did, it was a real grin, I was almost surprised by this new discovery. Seeing Minato about to say something else I babbled out "So where did you disappear to then, playing dollies with Hamako." I teased, walking over to the flowers to play with them for a bit before turning back to Minato to see an expression on his face saying 'this isn't over'.

"Actually my teammates and some of my other mates dragged me out saying I needed some fresh air for an hour." He admitted, gliding over to where I was standing to watch me play with the flowers.

"Have any fun." I asked, staring at one of the purple daisies in the centre of the bouquet of flowers. It was smaller than the rest for some reason, which gave it a soft, delicate feel to it. For some reason I started stroking one of its lilac petals, feeling the soft texture on my skin, it felt very nice.

"Not really, though it was funny to see Itachi being pushed into the river by his little sister" He laughed to himself at the memory.

"Sounds like Itachi doesn't get pushed into the river much." I smirked, pulling the flower out of the bouquet and twirling it gently between my fingers. I heard another small laugh escape out of Minato.

"You can say that again." He grinned, sitting himself on the bed now. I felt proud of myself that I had made him laugh for some reason; well I don't get to do it often, so it feels good to make someone laugh once and a while. Smiling to myself at my own silly thoughts I sat next to Minato, still playing with the flower between my fingers.

"Thank you for the flowers by the way." I mumble, still staring at the purple daisy laying in my hands.

"Thanks, I thought it would be better waking up to a bunch of beautiful flowers, or a really pissed off Grandma Tsunade who seems to be way more pissed off then I thought possible. " He finished. My smile spread further across, well who ever this Grandma Tsunade was, I think my mum would have liked her.

"Why did you get daisies?" I asked suddenly, looking at Minato for the first time.

"I just picked them because I thought you would like them."He responded, a look of utter confusing on his face. "Why? Don't you like them or ...?"

"No!" I objected before he could finish his sentence. "I was just wondering because daisies are my favourite, that's all."

"I guess I just have great taste then." He smiled back, I gave him a slight slap on the arm, which made Minato's face turn into a slight pout which made me laugh even more. A sudden yawn escapes my lips. My head began to feel a little heavy so I leant my head on Minato's shoulder for a bit of support.

"Guess you're a little bit weak still." Minato spoke suddenly, stroking the hair out of my face.

"Just a little." I mumbled quietly, falling asleep on Minato shoulder.

I found myself waking up in darkness, it took me a few moments for me to adjust my eye sight so I could see properly. My eyes lay onto a sleeping Minato in the seat next to the bed. That must be really uncomfortable, I thought as I watched him for a few seconds, letting a small smile slip from my face. Suddenly I felt the presence of another charka outside the window, turning my head slightly I could see what looked like a sliver flash disappear, quickly I raced over to the window to see if I could catch the person, the person must have bolted as soon as he saw me turn my head and raced over because I could feel his charka quickly disappearing behind the buildings. The stranger was too far and too fast for me to catch up with in the state I was in, I quickly read the aura around me to see if the stranger had left anything behind that could prove he was here for dangerous reasons, instead I only found the feeling of protectiveness and longing. How strange? I thought. With my body no longer tense, the coldness in the room hit my like a tiger attacking his prey. I must have not notice before because I was tucked under the sheets. My thoughts turned to Minato sitting in the chair; I could see the cold was affecting him as well since I could see him shivering a little bit. What was he doing here anyway? He should be at home with his family and a nice warm bed. Sighing to myself and closing the window, I quickly walked over to the bed and picked the covers off it. I didn't need them, I told myself, I had slept in the snow country in nothing but your clothes before, I could live without the covers for one chilly night. Walking to the other side of the bed where Minato was I wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. He snuggled into them as soon as they were placed around his shoulders, I had to surpass a laugh at the scene because he looked really cute and really silly at the same time. That was when I notice the purple flower loosely hanging from his hands. I gently pulled it out of his slightly cold hands and place it onto the bedside table before getting back onto the bed and curling into a ball for the extra warmth.


	10. I wish they were dreams

The morning sun's bright rays shone brightly over Konohagakure. Now usually I like to admire things such as a beautiful sunrise but not when it shining right into my eyes when I am trying to sleep. No not yet, I cried inside, five more minutes, grabbing the pillow and pushing it into my face to stop the light getting through. The cold chill that was still in the room creep up my skin, sending a powerful shiver down me spine. I gripped my arms in a desperate attempt to get more warmth spreading through my body. It wasn't working very well. Stupid cold. If only I was hyperactive I could properly get up and start running around. Well I do remember once my mother I got my laziness from my father.

_The day was beautiful, the grass was a brilliant bright green, the air clean and smelled of fresh forest and the sun was shining. A prefect day to just relax._

"_Nariko, will you get up." Mum shouted from across the field for the fourth time._

"_Hn" Was all I said back as I continue to read my book._

"_Nariko!" Mother yelled again._

"_What?"my young squeaky voice yelled back over the top of my book. Knowing fall well why she was yelling at me for, I just couldn't bothered to move. I was enjoying my time out of the hot sun and reading my book._

"_I swear Nariko, sometimes you're just like your father." Screamed Mum as began to paced the ground again._

"_Excuse me." I questioned, putting my book and staring at my mother in shock about what she had just said. My mother stopped pacing immediately, just realising what she had just done._

"_I said..."My mother began thinking of something to say. "Move your butt or I'll take you book away from you." I snorted knowing my mother would never do such a thing; nevertheless, I got up and place my book back into my back and followed my mother down the path. She might of thought that she had gotten away with what she just did but it was to late. I had found out something about my father._

Another cold shiver brought me out of my day dream, making me grip my arms even more tightly, so much that it hurt. I felt the fabric of soft material touch my skin as a blanket was placed over me. Thankful for the extra bit of warmth and quickly gripped onto the blanket. Much better, I dream as I snuggled into the blanket even more. The sound of someone's muffled laugh was the last bit of warm comfort that I had before the nightmare came.

_The field was beautiful in the moonlight, if it had been another time then I would of joyfully danced under the moons magical blaze. But tonight I wasn't focused on the glowing flowers or the enchanting trees. I was running as fast as possible. Away from what I had just witness, away from the bloody scene that was to follow me for the rest of my life, however, right now. I was running for my life. My vision was so blurry from the tears that I did not seethe flash of a figure appear in front of me. Before I knew it a sudden powerful force punched me in the stomach, throwing me off the ground and into a bark of a tree, almost knocking me out and making my vision even blurrier. Despite this I could still see the outline of his half black and white skin and the giant fly trap that surrounded his body._

"_Can't run no more can you child." He hissed, his evil aura forced me back further against the tree as his aura burned my lungs._

"_Get away from me!" I shrieked, all knowledge of what I should be doing left my frighten body._

"_Don't be scared child." The man hissed, moving closer towards me, standing right in front of me now and grabbed painfully onto my wrist. "You are here to serve an important purpose my child, the quest for unlimited power." No, I will not serve you, not after what do did to my mother. Then the headaches came. _

"_No, not now!" I screamed, grabbing my head and falling on to the ground, Please not know. _

"_Not what's the mat...?" He froze in his tracks. There as silence until a painful cry escape my lips and echo through the forest. "What have you done." the monster cried, stumbling around. "What! Aaaaaawww!" KaBoom! The headaches stopped, which meant one thing. Peeping through my figure tips. Everywhere around me was blood, it was splattered against every tree and plant, even me. Pure horror raced through my mind, I screamed in anger and despair. _

"_Nariko!"_

"_Nariko wake up!" _

A loud screamed escape my lips, tears of agony flowed down chests. My arms pulled and wrenched themselves from person grip but the refuse to let go.

"Nariko, please it's me." I voice cried. That's not the same voice as before, I thought. Slowly I opened my eyes to see Minato and the blonde hair woman stood by the side of my bed. "Nariko" Minato whispered, a strange force made me turn my head to him. He was holding my wrists in his warm hands, knowing it was him instead of the other man calmed my body, but my body was still shaking from shock. Before I knew it Minato embraced me into a warm hug and began to whisper warm comforting words into my eyes. I had no idea what he was saying but it felt great for me to have a safe place to cry in. Sobbing into his shoulder I let every emotion in me out, sadness, despair, anger and loneliness, every thing I felt was released through my tears and my quiet sobs. Kami! I am such a cry baby, for goodness sake Nariko get a hold of yourself. I pushed myself away from Minato and began wiping the tears away from my face. The lady passed me a box of tissues (where she got them from is a mystery to me), thankful, I grabbed a tissue from the box and began dabbing my eyes with it. I couldn't begin to think what I looked like to these people but I knew I must be a sad sight. What is wrong with me? Why can't I control my emotions?

**Maybe because you've stopped running long enough for your memories to finally catch up.**

Jeez thanks for the vote of confidence.

**Hey! You had to face it sooner or later**.

I guess your right.

**Good! And do you know why it's a good thing the nightmares came now.**

There's a good reason for this.

**Yeah.**

Fine! What is it?

**You don't have to do it alone.**

Knowing I had a least gain some control of myself, I risked looking to meet everyone's eyes.

"Are you ok." Minato asked, wrapping one of his strong arms around my shoulder in a supportive way.

"Not really, I'm just not used to being scared shitless, every time I wake up" I replied, thankful for the little comfort, seeing I was a little bit back to normal, Minato shone me a really cheesy grin. I gave a little smile back, partly to show reassurance that I was going to be fine but mostly because I thought his cheesy grin was really cheesy.

"I hear people feel like that after they've had a nightmare." Minato laugh at his own little joke.

"I wish it was a nightmare." I mumbled quietly to myself, not releasing Minato had also heard it. However, before he could say anything a small cough caught our attention, looking up to see a very annoyed blonde woman, staring at us with death glares.

"If you two would stop chitty chatty I have important news for you. Nariko." I stated, waiting to make sure we wouldn't start talking (even though that was impossible since one look on the lady's face was enough to shut anyone up) before she continues.

"Today Nariko, I will be releasing you but there are some issues we must go over first." Automatically, I nodded in understanding. "First thing first, acommdations have been set up in the Hokage's house for you to live there until you decide to rent an apartment or stay with someone else." She paused quickly, waiting for me to give a quick nod of acknowledgement. "Secondly during your battle with Madara we found most of your items, such as clothes and underwear were ruined, these have been replaced and things that me managed to save will be giving to you before you leave." She finished. My face turned pale at the last bit of speech.

"Did you managed to save a little sliver photo album." I asked, trying to keep my voice calm but it was still obvious that you could hear the desperation in my voice.

"You mean a little metal book about this big." She insisted, using her figures to indicate how tall and wide it was. I nodded viciously, waiting to know what happen to it. "Yes we found it, it is with the other processions." Relief flew through me, at thought of my mothers pictures being safe. "I'll get your clothes and things ready. Minato!" She ordered, marching briskly out the room. Minato quickly leapt off the bed.

"Before I go, you might want this back." Requested Minato, before I could reply he left. I opened the piece of paper to find my money inside.


	11. Trust

It felt good to be in proper clothes again. I was given a cherry red t-shirt and black knee length shorts with a new pair of black converses. I was also given a new kunai pouch with a full set of kunai's in it, plus a new black rucksack to put all of my belongings and new clothes in. I was examining the objects that had survived the battle, for some strange reason my book had survived, even the pages that had fallen out of it the day before where all here and had been stuck back in. My hair brush, soap, two jewel hair clips, some medical supplies, pencil case and notebook had survived as well. At the moment I was examining the photo album, it had survived like the lady had said but barely. The corners were badly bent and there were chips in the metal, the pictures were all right though, that was what mattered. I was going to have to buy a new photo album when I got the chance. It strange how someone's life can change so much in a few days. I pondered to myself, as I flicked through the pictures one more time to check the pictures were all fine. I stopped on the last one, the picture was taken a week before the indicated happen. It was at a fun fair, I had just won a game at one of the stalls and was waving a giant pink bunny around, and mum was standing next to me laughing at my excitement. I laughed at the memory since I remember soon after this picture I accidentally split my raspberry milkshake over one of the clowns, out of anger he tear the head off my bunny then mum sent him flying through a wall. I laughed to myself quietly, good times, good times.

"Cute picture." I voice crept up behind me. I snapped the book shut and span around to find the blonde head lady was the one that had spoken.

"Thanks." I stuttered, still recovering from my fright.

"May I see?" She asked holding her hands out, at first I wasn't sure but then again she did save my life, what's the harm in letting her see a few baby pictures of me. I gently placed the album in her hands. It was strange watching her flip through the photos, I was so use to seeing a scowl across her face that it was quite sweet and scary to see her smiling as she flipped through, now and again she would let out a little laugh. It was quite a sight to see her smile, that's when I notice the purple diamond on her forehead for the first time. How could I miss that? I thought, it's pretty obvious. She handed it straight back to me as soon as she had finished.

"You miss her don't you?" She asked kindly, watching me gently stroke the front cover.

"Yeah! She was all I ever had." I answered, hugging the album close to my chest; a silent tear fell down my cheek. I would usually wipe it away but this was not any tear, this tear was for my mum, this tear was a silent tear of mourning.

"She would be proud of you." She whispered softly, placing a calm steady hand on my shoulder.

"Why? It's not like I've done anything special." I argued back, regretting what I said as soon as I had said it.

"You saved a fine man's life and defeated one of the most powerful ninjas that's ever to work this planet. If that's not something to be proud of I don't know what is." She lectured, shaking me a little to make sure I got the point. I looked up at her, suspecting to see her scowl back in place but instead found a small smile on her full pink lips. I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. "What's so funny?" She demand, her scowl starting to reappear back on her face.

"Nothing" I replied, looking down at the little sliver cover and stroking it one more time. "I just thought my mum would of liked you if she was still around, that's all." Looking up at the lady's face to see shock written over her face.

"What makes you think that?" She questioned, staring at me with a weird expression on her face.

"I don't know." I replied honestly "I just have a feeling she would have." A uneasy silence had fallen on to the room. The lady had a very sad look on her face. Did I offend her by saying a dead woman would of like her? Just then the door creaked open and Minato and his father walked into the room, both freezing instantly, feeling the tension in the atmosphere. Naruto was the first too break the silence.

"So are you ready to go Nariko?" trying to break the silence in the atmosphere. I turned to look at Naruto, as I remember what was going on.

"Yeah, I'm ready." I replied, turning to Tsunade and giving a quick bow. "It was nice to meet you." I felt Minato arm wrap around my arm and pull me gently away.

"Let's go then" He announced joyfully, stirring me away from the woman and towards the door. "See you at the family dinner tomorrow Grandma Tusnade." Minato called over his shadow as we exited the room with Naruto flowing us behind. It was only until we were half way out the building did a sudden thought dawn on me.

"Minato?" I asked, making sure I had everything right in my head before I continued any further with the conversation.

"Yeah" Minato hummed, obviously in his own little thoughts.

"Why did you call that lady back there Grandma Tsunade?" I questioned, it's probably because she is seen as a grandmother figure, I mean she can't possibly his...

"Oh, that's because she's my Grandmother." Minato replied, like nothing was wrong with his answer.

"But isn't she too young to be your Grandmother?" I enquired, not sure if I had heard correctly or was hoping to hear some logical explanation for why a young looking woman in there thirties was a grandmother. Suddenly both Naruto and Minato started to laugh, making feel like a complete idiot.

"Oh, it's hard to tell but grandma is seventy-three years old." Minato stumbled out.

"Oh" was all I could reply to in my state of shock, making Naruto and Mianto laugh even more.

I started replaying the conversation in my head, again. Ok so Grandma Tsunade is Minato's adoptive grandma, who looks like she's in her mid-thirties, despite being actually being seventy-three years old. That does not sound normal, the age part, not the adoptive part. I had been sitting in my room for an hour, trying to get the information clear in my head. Even though I was released late in the morning, it had taken hours to get the paperwork filled out, so by the time we had got out it was nearly dinner time. The only reason I was doing this was because I was trying not to think of the family dinner party Naruto and Minato were telling me about all the way back to their house.

ME + PARTY = DISASTER

**Yeah! Party.**

OMG! You're actually excited.

**Yeah!**

How can you?

**Simple, there's going to be food. **

Is that all you can think about.

**That and Minato hot ass.**

What?

**Don't deny it, I saw you looking at it earlier. **

Right on queue Minato entered the room.  
"Hey can we talk." He asked, standing nervously in the door way.

"Sure, come one in." I replied, watching him closely as he walked in and sat himself on the bed next to me. The silence in the room was painful, as I watched Minato trying to think what he was going to say. I waited patiently, knowing that if it wasn't important he wouldn't be here.

"Nariko..." He finally said, only stopping to turn and face me. "You know back in the hospital, when you had just woken up from your nightmare." He paused, waiting to see if I remember. How could I forget? I wondered to myself but instead of saying it out loud, I nodded politely, waiting for Minato to continue. I watched him bite his lower lip as he strangled with what to say next. "What did you mean when you said 'I wish it was a dream'?" He questioned silently, looking at me with his beautiful blue eyes. I hadn't realised he had heard what I said back at the hospital, me and my big mouth. I started nervously chewing my bottom lip as I thought what I should say to him. I didn't want to lie to him but I didn't actually want to tell him the truth either.

"Minato, you're the first friend I've had in years and I appreciate everything you've done for me but I can't fully trust you yet." I paused, looking up to see hurt and sadness in his baby blue eyes. "Please don't take the last part the wrong way, it's just I don't know _how_ to trust people. Please just give me some time." I could feel tears building up in my eyes as I said this. I looked up to see Minato's sad eyes turn into understanding ones.

"I'm glad we can be honest to each other." Minato smiled sweetly, brushing his long blonde hair back out of his eyes. "We're glad you're back, especially Hamako." I giggled at the memory. As soon as we had enter the Hokage building, Hamako came bouncing down the stairs and threw her arms around me and babbled on about how I broke a promise to braid her hair and how she was really upset that I left and she was worried sick when I was in hospital. I hurriedly apologised and promise to show her how to make a braid tomorrow, plus as an extra apology I said I would buy her pretty hair clips to go in her hair. After that I was given another hug and a lot of thank you, I was still surprised I didn't suffocate. A loud knock came from the door, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Come in!" I and Minato both chorused. In the next second the door creaked open and Jiraiya head poked through the door.

"Mum says dinners ready." He smiled cheerfully, before popping back into the hall way. Yeah, dinner. I and Minato both leapt off the bed the same time. Mockingly, Minato bowed to let me go first. I curtsied in return and walk out of the room and into the dining room, where Naruto and Jiraiya were helping Hamako set up the table.

"Hello my wonderful family." Minato chuckled joyfully as he walked past his father and sat down near the end of the table.

"Hello my lazy son who uses sweet complements to get himself out of trouble." Replied Naruto, shooting Minato a dirty look.

"I'm not lazy." Minato argued back. Naruto was about to argue back but Minato was saved at the last minute as Hinata walked through the door, carrying a big bowl of what smelt like ramen. Everyone sat down at the table almost at the same time.

"Nariko sweet heart, is something wrong." Mrs Uzumaki asked, as I was the only one still standing up.

"Oh. I, uummmm..." I stopped, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. I wasn't sure where I was meant to sit. Luckily, Jiraiya and Hamako came to my rescue.

"Come and sit next to us Nariko." Jiraiya called, patting the chair next to him. I quickly scuttled around the table to reach the seat, as soon as we sat down and started eating everyone started talking about their day. Jiraiya was discussed how well school was going, Hamako chatted about how well her training was going with her cousins and Uncle Neji and Hinata talked about how hard it was getting someone's wedding ready.

"Nariko, Nariko, Nariko!" Someone yelled.

"Huh! Oh sorry I was daydreaming." I responded, my cheeks going a little pink from embarrassment.

"I was just going to ask if you would like to go shopping with me and mummy tomorrow to find you a dress for the party." Hamako asked, stuffing a big piece of ramen in her mouth. Oh, I had forgotten about the party.

"Yeah, about the party..." I mentioned, putting my chopsticks down. "I don't think me going to the party is such a good idea." Silence fell on the room as soon as I had finished talking, everyone had stopped what they were doing too stare at me.

"Why not!" Little Hamako demanded, her arms crossed, showing she won't take no for an answer. I didn't want to tell them what had happened the last time I went to a party but I couldn't think of a excuse to use. Sighing, I took a big breath before I spoke.

"I kind of accidently blew up the birthday." I muttered, silence still remained in the room.

"How?" Questioned Jiraiya.

"I don't remember." I stuttered. It was a lie of course and I could tell from the look on Naruto, Minato's and Mrs Uzumaki faces that they didn't believe me. What can I say? I am a really rubbish lair.


	12. The dress

My debate over me going to the party didn't go the way I wanted it to, despite my protests the Uzumaki family insisted that I joined them for the family dinner tonight because they had special friends from the village of the sand coming in. I didn't think I would win anyway but I thought I might as well try. I just hope I don't blow up anything this time. I was laying bed, staring up at the ceiling. This Uzumaki family had insisted that I should try to make my room more my own but I didn't really feel comfortable doing something like, plus I didn't know and to make a place 'homey' anyway, so instead all my stuff was in my bag which lay at the bottom of the bed. I turned over to see what the time was, six o'clock, man that sucks, I never wake up until ten the earliest. I'll try to get some sleep now, before mine and Hamako busy day of shopping. However, sleep seemed determined not to come, so instead I got up, took a quick shower and got myself dressed in the same black knee length shorts and converses and for a change put on a white, long sleeve t-shirt with a v-neckline. Now what am I going to do with this, I pondered with myself as I played with my long pink hair in the mirror, maybe just a simple french plait today. Just as soon as I had finished plaiting my hair I heard a little knock come from the door.

"Come in." I called, walking into the bedroom to see who it was, it was little Hamako.

"I hoped you were up Nariko, I was wondering if can teach me how to do a plait now, so I can show off when we go shopping." she asked, swinging on the bulls of her feet. I sighing inwardly at the thought of shopping but put on a big smilely face for Hamako.

"Of course Hamako." I replied, dragging her into the bathroom. I actually had fun teaching Hamako, I taught how to make a simple braid (which she became overjoyed about) and how many styles you could put it in, and for Hamako I did two braids at the side coming up into a high pony tail, so her blue curls floated about in the air. I almost laughed when I let Hamako see the finishing touches and her mouth dropped wide open in astonishment. Soon after wound's, Jiraiya came into the room to announce breakfast was ready. As we walked into the dining room (well I walked, Hamako bounced in as usual) Hamako began showing off her braids to everyone, including the unexpected visitors. One of them I already knew. It was the same guy that had been on the search team to find me and had questioned me in the hospital. The other person looked actually like the other guy, only he was around Minato age and actually smiled to greet me. I gave a small smile back before sitting in my seat between Hamako and Jiraiya. Jiraiya instantly started talking about his school sports day coming up and was hoping I could help him with his training since he heard I was pretty fast. I said I would be glad to help and I was talking to him about a few pointers when Minato walked into the room.

"Itachi, my good man, what are you doing here." He shouted as both boys greeted his friend with a fist pound and sat down next to each other.

"Just came to get some of Auntie Hinata good pancakes down my hungry belly." He replied cheerfully, tapping his stomach.

"How did you know mum was making pancakes?" Minato question, giving Itachi a funny look.

"Dude, I can smell you mums pancakes a mile away, two if I'm hungry." He answered, turning to Hamako and giving her a little wink. Hamako suddenly burst out laughing. I let a little giggle myself; since I thought Hamako laughter was really cute. Soon afterwards Mrs Uzumaki came out with a big plate of pancakes for everyone. The table was alive with laughter and chatting as we all sat eating breakfast around the table, I was surprised I could still hear what Jiraiya was saying, we were still talking about training techniques we could use to help Jiraiya improve his speed.

"Nariko." I heard Naruto call. I turned to see Naruto and his guest both staring at me. "I and Sasuke were wondering if you would be interested in joining the training sessions we usually have on Fridays." I thought of this for a moment, I guess I could use the training, since I am getting a bit rusty, plus it would feel great to stretch my legs out a little bit. I could also see if some of the techniques I had been working on lately worked.

"I would love to." I smiled. Naruto also smile and Sasuke, well he had a grumpy expression on as usual.

"See teme, I told you she would like to come." Naruto continue to talk to Sasuke but this time their arugment had caught my attention.

"I heard her you idiot." Sasuke muttered, for grown men they sure acted a lot like children.

"Don't call me idiot." Naruto argued back, all of a sudden a fight broke out between Sasuke and Naruto, well Naruto was doing most of the arguing where Sasuke just threw in a insult like 'idiot' or 'dobe' every now again. Everyone (expect Mrs Uzumaki) were laughing the heads off because of their childlike behaviour, until Mrs Uzumaki finally decided to break it up.

"Will you too stop it, think of your children."

"It's a little bit late for that." I and Itachi both stated, staring at each other as if we couldn't believe we were thinking of the same thing.

"Why do you say that?" Hamako asked, with a mouth full of pancake.

"Exhibit A" Itachi point-out, indicating to Minato who had just taken the largest spoonful of pancakes in the world and stuffed it into his mouth, who had not realised that everyone was staring until he was half why through chewing it.

"What?" He mouthed, not sure why everyone was looking at him for, making me and Itachi burst out laughing.

Half an hour after breakfast we all went our separate ways. Minato and Itachi went off to some training lesson with some of their other friends, Sasuke and Naruto went to their offices to finish off some paperwork, while I, Hamako and Mrs Uzumaik went into town to do some dress shopping. Since the hokage tower was pretty much in the centre of village it didn't take us very long to get there, the streets were busy, people shouting out prices of the things they were selling, colourful fabrics shone brightly out of the shop windows and the smell of freshly cooked food surround the whole atmosphere. We had already brought Hamako and myself new shoes. Hamako skipped happily ahead while I and Mrs Uzumaki followed, making our way to the end of the street where all the clothes shops were.

"Thank you for the shoes Mrs Uzumaki." I really was grateful, since I really liked the shoes but wasn't sure if I should buy them or not, until Mrs Uzumaki forced me to try them on and said I looked wonderful in them, she insisted on buying them, even though I told her I could buy them myself.

"It was no problem at all and please, call me Hinata." She insisted. I wasn't sure if I would actually like shopping or not but I was actually having fun, it felt good to release my girly side for once. We were half way through a conversation about shoes (hey, I don't know why we were talking about shoes boys, it's a girl thing) when a shadow past over us making Hinata look up. When I looked up I saw a bird circling above us. I turned to ask Hinata what was going on but as soon as I saw her face I knew it was something bad, Hinata's face was turning paler and paler by the second. Hamako had stopped, not noticing the worried look on her mother face .

"Mummy, come on." Hamako whined "I want to get the blue dress I pointed out to you yesterday." This seemed to pull Hinata attention away from the bird.

"I'm sorry sweetie I'm afraid we don't have the time to go dress shopping." Hinata said. The look of annoyance on Hamako face turned to a sad and disappointing one.

"But you promised if I did well in my training you would get me a new dress." Hamako cried sadly, tears were filling in Hamako violet eyes. I could tell from the look on Hinata face that she hated disappointing her daughter.

"I'll look after Hamako if you want Mrs Uzu ... Hinata." I uttered quickly. I didn't know what to do, so I did the first thing I could think of, Hinata turned to me with a look of gratitude on her face.

"Oh thank you Nariko." She whispered, turning to Hamako she firmly stated "Now you behave while Nariko's looking after you or no dress." Hamako nodded viciously, with a quick wave to both of us she did a sign with her fingers and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Now I know why boyfriends hate shopping with there girlfriends. It. Is. Complete. Torture. Don't get me wrong, it was fun trying on dresses but when you're forced to try every single dress in five shops by a five year old, it can be beyond torture. I know what your thinking, if you don't want to put on a dress, just say no but your forgetting this is the cutest five year old in the world, who makes a puppy dog face when she can sense that someone's going to say no to her. How can I possibly say no to her? I had already brought Hamako the dark blue dress she wanted (and I admit made her look even more beautiful when she tried it on) so I was glad we still didn't need to shop for her stuff as well, we just need to find something for me. Which was impossible. At the moment I was staring at my reflection in the mirror, the dress came up to my mid-thigh, it was a dark pinky/purple with a low back. No way was this something a person wore at a family party, however I still needed to show Hamako. Taking a deep breath I stepped out of the dressing room.

"What do you think of this one Hamako?" I asked, still not sure if I should wear it. Hamako looked up from the doll she was playing with (I brought it for her earlier so she wouldn't get bored while she was waiting for me to change.) Her mouth suddenly fell open.

"That's it, that's the dress." She shouted, jumping up and down in joy, I looked back into the mirror again to see what the dress was like. I was still not sure about it, maybe I should go for the safe light pink one I had tried on earlier, it seemed to be the right on to wear to a family party.

"I agree with the little one, that dress looks stunning on you." Someone commented behind me, turning around I saw a young man with a strong face and was well dressed. He was quite handsome. I notice Hamako had stopped jumping up and down and was giving the stranger an odd look. Feeling tension in the air, I began to think fast.

"I think I'll buy the light pink one I tried on earlier don't you think Hamako." Hamako only replied with a small nod, not taking her glaring eyes off the man. I quickly entered the dressing room to change and grabbed the pink dress off the hook. Entering the room again I still found the man there with Hamako still glaring at him. "Come on Hamako." I gestured hurriedly, gently tucking on Hamako arm towards the till and lay the dress across the counter.

"That's 15000yen please." The old lady at the counter asked, holding out her hands to take the money. Quite pricey for a dress I thought but payed for it anyway, since I just wanted to get out of the shop.

"Aren't you going to pay for that dress too." I heard the stranger ask behind, I sprang around to find the purple dress I had just tried on laying on the counter. I certainly did not pick that up. I had left it on the hook -the stranger was leaning against a poll near some other dresses- surely he didn't put it there.

"Please." He came forward with a smile on his face, now standing only a few inches from me. "Let me buy you that dress." He began fumbling through his pocket and brought out a black, expansive looking, leather wallet, it was only when he had brought out his wallet and re-gestured to the dress that I had released what he had just asked.

"No thank you, I'm ok with what I have." I attempted to leave but I felt one of his large hands grab my arm.

"Oh, please I insist." He gestured to the dress again. Who does this guy think he is? I thought as I pulled hard to get away from him, his hand didn't budge and his grip tighten, it was beginning to hurt a bit. I focus a small amount of charka through my arm and into this hand. A loud gasp of surprise and pain escape the man's throat as he jumped back, moving his arm around to try and get the feeling back into it.

"When I say no, I mean no." I almost yelled, trying to keep my anger under control because I didn't want to throw a punch, miss and destroy half the building. The young man glared back at me, I could feel the anger escaping his body, he must no like the idea of being told no.

"Why are you being such a bitch and not let me buy you the dress?" he demanded angrily , also trying to control the anger in his voice. Before I could say anything back a familiar voice joined in the conversation.

"Because the dress has already been brought." I sprang around in surprise to find Minato standing there with a the purple dress in his hand with a smirking Hamako standing right beside him. Minato was giving the stranger on of the most poisonousness looks I had ever seen. I nearly fell over when I felt someone push past me, I looked up just in time to see the stranger leave with a look of pure anger on his face.


	13. Warnings

My mind had gone completely blank, what had just happened? I was only meant to be buying a stupid dress. Who was that guy anyway?

"Hey, you ok." Minato asked kindly. I hadn't realised he had walked over to me, still holding the dress in his arms. I wasn't sure; I think I was in shock, me in shock.

"What are you doing here anyway, I thought you were training." I questioned, I wasn't really sure what else I was meant to do, it was the first thing I could think of. Wow, I must be in shock.

"Well I was but Lee JR was trying to show off with a new taijustu he learned but instead he hurt himself, when we got him to the hospital I saw mum and she asked me to check up on you two." He finally finished taking in a large breath to regain some of the oxygen he had lost in his long speech. That's when I notice the burning pain in my arm, I placed the bag I was carrying near my feet and pulled the sleeve of my t-shirt up, right around the top of my upper arm lay a purpley/black bruise, it was huge. Minato instantly grabbed my arm and examined the bruise, every second he spent looking at it his face grew angrier. Hamako came over to see what was taking so long but stopped within a few feet, I saw her face wince as she took in the ugly thing on my arm.

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch." Minato cried suddenly, finally letting go on my arm, I swear I saw fume coming out of his ears.

"Minato don't get yourself worked over nothing." I yelled back, sending charka into my arm and began healing the bruise, Kami! It really stings. Hamako and Minato mouth fell open like I had just said all of the sickest words in the world and spat them right into the face of the feudal lord.

"Nothing, you call that thing on your arm nothing." He spat back. My insides turned upside down, that hurt more than the stupid bruise on my arm. Kami! Why was it taken so long to heal anyway? I turned away for Minato and Hamako and continued to heal the bruise, trying to force back the tears that were daring to escape. I recognised the warm touch of Minato as he placed one of his arms around my waist. "Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." He whispered into my ear, sending goose bumps up my arm. Finally, finish I thought, as the last of the bruise disappeared. I started flexing my arm to make sure there wasn't going to be any stiffness in it. Satisfied, I pulled the sleeve back down. I felt a third pair of eyes watching us, I glanced up at the counter to see the lady at the till with a silly smile on her face, when she notice I was staring at her she quickly looked away but I could still see the silly smile on her face.

"Can we go please?" I asked, not wanting to stay here any longer, Minato nodded in understanding.

"Come on, let's go home." Minato mumbled, grabbing on to my hand and pulling me out of the store.

I was staring at myself in the full length mirror for the hundredth time. I think I looked ok for the family party, the light pink dress just came above my knees, the sleeves stop at the elbow and the material hugged my figure so it showed off my curves. I had put my hair tied into a classic bun, I was thinking I might leave it down for once but I didn't want to get it in the food, there was nothing else I could do since I had no make up to put on. The party didn't begin for another hour leaving me with nothing to do, to past the time I pondered on my own thoughts.

_We had just entered the hokage building, Hamako went skipping ahead to hopefully find her father and show him the new stuff she had. I was about to follow her up the stairs when Minato grabbed my arm._

"_I need to talk to you." He whispered in my ear, pulling me gently towards the cupboard. Before I could protest he opened the door and dragged me inside. It was completing dark, until I heard a click and the light flashed on above us._

"_I'm sorry about this but I needed to talk to you where no one could hear us."He admitted. I couldn't help but wonder why the cupboard was so small; I and Minato were only a few inches apart from each other._

"_I want you to stay away from Daitaro" He ordered, I had never heard him use that tone with anyone before, so I was a little taken back by it._

"_Who's Daitaro?"I asked dumbly._

"_The guy at the dress store." He replied. Oh yeah, that guy, thinking back to the clothes shop. "I mean it Nariko, when you see him walking down the street towards you, you walk the other way." He also added, snapping me out of the memory._

"_I can take care of myself Minato." I stated firmly, I knew Minato was only trying to look out for me but I didn't like being talked too like I was a little kid, before I could react to anything Minato placed both of his hands on my shoulders, his grip firm._

"_I know you can." He acknowledged, loosening his grip on my shoulders a bit "But that doesn't mean I won't look out for you." He finally let go of my shoulders, giving me one of his smiles._

"_Who is Daitaro anyway?" I quickly stuttered out, so my mind was not focused on Minato muscular, soft mouth. _

"_He's the son of a very wealthy lord and a very powerful ninja who thinks he can get anything he wants if he pays for it."Minato answered. That explains why he was so insistent on buying me that stupid purple dress. I thought. I looked back at Minato to see a kind of pleading look in his eyes that he was trying to keep back._

"_Ok Minato. I'll be careful." As soon as I had said it I saw the pleading look disappear to be replaced by a calm one. _

I just had to try on the purple dress. I thought. I could have left it on the rack but no it was the only one that catches your eye so you decide to try it on. You could of left five minutes earlier and not have to bother with this nuisance.

**Nuisance or not, you looked super hot in that dress.**

This isn't the time for whether I look good in a dress or not.

**Oh yeah, what is it time to think about?**

How I'm going to survive the party in the next hour?

**Forty-six minutes actually, you spent fourteen minutes replaying the cupboard scene in your head. **

Oh great.

**Just think of the food.**

I don't think that's going to help me much.

**You're just nervous that the rest of Minato's family won't like you.**

A little bit.

**Look on the bright side; you already have one family member that doesn't like you already.**

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

**Plus there's going to be food**.

You're the worse inspirational talker I've ever met.

**Hey that's mean. **

Two loud knocks came from the door and Hamako and Jiraiyia came walking in. Both of their hair was a mess.

"I thought you two were getting ready for the party." I teased a little bit, waiting for Hamako or Jiraiya to explain what they were doing here.

"We need your help to do our hair." Hamako asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

"Plus, we don't want to bother mum because she's trying to sought out the food." Jiraiya added. I have nothing to do, so I might as well help them. Heck, even if I was busy I would help them anyway. I quickly summon a clone, one me for Hamako and another me for Jiraiya. The work began, Jiraiya hair refused to be brush and stay flat and Hamako was debating with the other me which hair style she should have. It took me almost thirty minutes to fix their hair. I put Hamako curls pinned back so it looked like she had more curls and I managed to brush Jiraiya's hair back with a lot of water and gel. The door flew open again and Naruto walked into the room.

"Nariko, have you seen..." He paused, seeing me finish off Hamako hair and other me fixing Jiraiya shirt. A small smile spread across Naruto face, he opened the door and poked his head outside. "Honey I found the kids." Seconds later Hinata came rushing into the room, she wore a beautiful purple floor length dress that brought out her eyes, Naruto was also dressed quite smartly with black trousers and a light blue shirt, I was actually excepting him to wear a orange shirt since he always seemed to wear orange. I could tell that Hinata had over-worked herself because even though she had done her hair it was falling out in some places.

"I've been looking for you two everywhere, we need to get..." She paused as she finally realised Jiraiya and Hamako were already dressed. "How did you two get yourselves ready?" She asked, very surprised to see her youngest children dressed. Instantly they both pointed at me. Well, Hamako pointed at the real me and Jiraiya pointed at the shadow clone.

"Eerrr, which ones the real Nariko?" asked Hamako, looking back between me and the shadow clone, me and my shadow clone both started giggling, making everyone more confused. I did a quick sign so the shadow clone me disappeared, leaving just me in the room.


	14. Party

You survived some of the scariest bad asses that existed on this planet, you survived nearly starving to death and you survived almost sixteen years of stones, accusations and witch hunts. You can do this. No matter what I told my brain my body refuse to co-operate, it had taken me nearly twenty minutes to get down the stairs and it was taking me another thirty minutes to open the door. Come on don't be a baby, just open the door and scuttle to the closest, darkness corner of the room before anyone notices, that way you don't break you promise to Hamako for not attending the party, giving my body another shake before attempting another try at opening the door, like the first three tries, it didn't work. Come on your half an hour late to the party already. Just as I was about to brace myself for another try of opening the door, the door swung open, forcing me to jump back. A man wearing a long red shirt and trousers walked through the door, closing it behind him and walked up the hall, tried to anyway, since he bumped into me as an alternative.

"Sorry, you must be Nariko." The man asked, stepping back a bit. I looked up to examine the man carefully, he had very pale skin with blood red hair and wore some type of eye liner around his icy blue eyes with a weird symbol above his right eye, he was just a bit taller than me and was also quite handsome but for some reason had no eyebrows. "All of the Uzumaki's are wondering what's taking you so long." He wasn't being harsh, just stating a fact.

"I've actually been standing out here trying to work up the nerve to open the door." I replied honestly, hearing a small laugh escape his lips.

"I know what you mean, I not actually a party person myself but it's the only time I get to visit my sister." He shrugged. I laughed a little putting a small smile on his face. "I'm Gaara by the way." He said offering his hand out for a shake; I took it and gave it a firm shake.

"I'm Nariko but you already guess that." I replied, making the older man laugh a little more.

"So Nariko, would you like to have an escort into the party." He asked a little smile spread across his face as he offered me his arm, at the thought of the party my face winced, making Gaara laugh even more. "I promise they only bite on Mondays, well except Grandma Tsunade but in about half an hour she'll be drunk on sake and you'll hardly notice her." He was so nice. How could I say no to him?

"I would love to." Taking his arm and letting him escort me into the party. As soon as we had entered the room everyone looked at me. My whole body stiffen. Maybe I should have run when I had the chance.

**Just remember to breathe.**

I know I need to breathe.

**So why aren't you breathing?**

Oh yeah.

I began forcing my to breathe, knowing if I fainted in front of everyone, it would be really embarrassing, though it could make a perfect escape route opinion.

"Come; let me introduce you to my wife and kids." Gaara finally spoke, pulling me gently to the other side of the room. As Gaara pulled me over to where his family was standing, everyone gradually began looking away from me and turning back to their conversations, I felt a breath of relief escape my body. Now I just had to get through the rest of it. "Nariko, I would like you to meet my family." Gushing me over. "This is my wife Matsuri." He indicated to a small woman with a beautiful plain face and short brown hair, she gave me a polite nod. "These are my children Karura and Yasunari." He indicated to the two children standing next to his wife. Karura was a pretty young girl around fourteen years old, with long dark brown hair and a soft complexion, while Yasunari was around Hamako age with a cute round face and dark red hair; they had both inherited their fathers blue eyes and their mother's eyebrows thankfully.

"Hi, I'm Nariko." I smiled, trying to be friendly; Hinata had told me the best way to know a person is to relax and to just be friendly.

"You're the lady who did Hamako and Jiraiya hair." Yasunari asked, pointing over to where Hamako was playing with another little girl with short blonde hair put into pigtails and was carrying a small fan around with her.

"Eeeerrr, yeah." I replied, I didn't know what to say, since I was a little shocked by the question, to be honest I wasn't expecting anyone to actually talk to me at all. I had only planned my greetings and nothing else; I have got to be better prepared in the future.

"I've never seen Hamako hair so curly before." Yasunari mused, staring in Hamako direction again with a little smile on his lips. Aaaaawwww! Little Yasunari has a little crush on Hamako, that's so cute.

"I've also never seen Jiraiya hair so neat." Karura commented, pointing at Jiraiya who was talking with two boys that looked exactly identical to each other and looked a lot like Sasuke but they had blonde hair and they were laughing and mucking around with each other, they were messing each other's hair up, until the attractive blonde lady I saw at the hospital came over to tell them off, however as soon as she left one of the twins started doing an impression of his mother telling them off and his other twin and Jiraiya began laughing their heads off.

"Trust me; you don't know how many broken brushes and torture I had to go through before I got it half brushed." I remarked sarcastically, actually he didn't break a lot of brushes but this one time when I was brushing through his hair and it got caught in a knot, I pulled it out so hard that when it did come out it flew across the room and broke in half. Karura started laughing at my little remark.

"Oh believe me, I can tell how much effort went into brushing his hair." She babbled, letting out another laugh. Gaara family were very nice, they told me stories about themselves and friends and they also talked about their everyday life. I listened, laughing now and again when Matsuri told a funny story about her husband. They also asked questions about myself, at first I tried to keep the answers short but then I started to really relax and talk about myself more freely. Gaara also introduce me to his older brother, Kankuro, who was heavily drunk and also to his older sister Temari and her husband Shikamaru (apparently it was their daughter who was playing with Hamako earlier.) I was listening to one of Matsuri funny stories when Karura suddenly shrieked.

"I love this song." Before anyone could say anything, she disappeared onto the dance floor. After watching the dancing crowd for a while I turned back to Matsuri to listen to the rest of the story when Yasunari face caught my attention. He seemed to look absolutely miserable now that his sister was gone; I looked into the direction he was staring at. I instantly saw what the problem was; Hamako was dancing with Itachi in the middle of the floor, a sudden idea pop into my head, I gave my empty wine glass on to one of the serves trays walking around the room and turned back to Yasunari.

"Yasunari would you like to dance with me." I asked, holding out my hand, a big smile grew on Yasunari face; he immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the dance floor. The music had quite a lively beat to it, so Yasunari and I were doing all of these crazy spins and steps. I had no idea what I was doing but who cares, I was having a great time. When the song stopped an eruption of applause sounded through the room. I blush a bit with embarrassment but not as much as Yasunari whose face had turned bright red like his hair.

"That was some amazing dancing Yasunari." A shy little voice spoke behind us. We both turned to find Hamako standing behind us with her hands behind her back and wasn't making eye contact with him. The little guys face blushed even redder then before.

"Thanks Hamako." He mumbled, also staring at the floor, at that moment a slow song began echoing through the room, I rolled my eyes. Love. I quickly gave Yasunari a little nudge and indicated to Hamako then the dance floor.

"Would you like to dance with me Hamako?" Yasunari asked nervously, Hamako looked up with a little blush appeared on her cheeks. Hehehe, my evil plan is working.

"I would love too." Hamako whispered, a big smile grew on Yasunari face as he grabbed Hamako hand and dragged her towards the dance floor and they started twirling around, man Yasunari and Hamako were quite good dances, it was really cute to see them doing the waltz together and let's not forget that I am an awesome cupid I suddenly felt a familiar spike of charka appeared behind me.

"Care to dance." Minato suggested, holding out his arm.

"I don't know, I'm not much of a dancer." I replied, feeling my cheeks turn a bit warmer, Minato let out a little laugh.

"Are you kidding, you were amazing on the dance floor." He smiled, despite my better judgement I took his hand and let him lead me to the dance floor. "So you enjoying the party." He asked, as we did a small waltz around the floor.

"I am. Gaara's family have been very nice to me." I answered, letting Minato spin me into to a twirl and back again.

"Yeah Gaara a great guy." He said, taking a quick look at Hamako and Yasunari."So been playing cupid I see." He smirked, letting out a little laugh, at his own idea.

"Now Minato, you know I don't believe in all that corny romance stuff." I acknowledged sarcastically, giving Minato a wink, making Minato laugh a little more. The soft music started to die down, bringing me out of my fantasy world, Kami! What am I doing? I let go of Minato hands and stepped back as quickly as I could without trying to look rude, the hand I had being using to hold Minato hand still tickled a little bit. "Thanks for the dance." I stumbled out quickly, turning around to walk away. Well, that was what I was hoping for but instead I walked straight into the waiter, spilling hot sauce all over me. I hissed out in pain and jumped back, I looked down to examine the damage. Good grief I was covered in red sauce and my skin was burning like hell.

"Nariko are you all right." I heard Minato call behind me but instead of answering I ran out of the room as fast as I could, dodging other party guests and ran up to my room.


	15. Eavesdropping

Kami! This stuff burns; I winced as I tried pealing the material so I could examine the skin better. In the places where the dress had been to protect my skin had left a first degree burns however on my neck where it had no protection I had suffered a second degree burn. What the hell was that sauce? Was it called Really Hot and Burns! I feel sorry for the poor person who would put that sauce in their mouth.

"Nariko, are you ok." I heard Hinata shout from the outside. Damn! What was she doing here? She needs to be back down stairs playing hostess. I began to panic as I tried washing the sauce off my skin so I could begin the healing process.

"I'm fine just a few burns." I shouted back, trying to get the sauce off quick, it was a mistake since I had to bite my tongue to stop yelling out in pain.

"Burns!" Hinata yelled back shocked. Damn! Me and my big mouth. "Nariko please let me in." I heard Hinata shout, she was worried about.

"I'm fine; please go back to the party." I almost screamed back, tears leaked from my eyes in frustration as I scrubbed harder and harder to get rid of the sauce. Why wasn't this stuff coming off? I wanted to scream, but didn't because I knew Hinata was still waiting outside.

"Nariko, I'm not leaving you by yourself if you're hurt." She ordered through the door. What was I going to do? She couldn't actually come in since I had locked the door and I was pretty sure she wasn't going to bash down the door to get in. Nevertheless, I hated leaving her outside worrying about me. I was beginning to think desperately of how I could get rid of her, I had already said too much.

"I promise I'm ok, I'll be back to the party in the minute." There was a moment of silence expect from the rinse of water coming from the shower.

"Ok then, but if you don't come back in thirty minutes I'll send someone up to get you." She ordered. I heard her walk away and slam the door shut behind her. I collapsed near the sink, trying to gain control of myself, as tears flooded down my face, my body shaking violently from surpassed anger I had been trying to hold back from Hinata.

**At least you didn't blow up anything this time.**

...

**Oh come on don't be depressed.**

...

**Stop crying.**

I am not.

**Yeah you are.**

Why did everything have to turn out so bad?

**It wasn't that bad.**

I got hot sauce all over me!

**Ok, ok. No need to shout.**

Now I have to wear a stained dress.

**You could always wear the purple dress.**

I'll take my chances with the stain one.

**Nariko.**

Fine.

First things first though, time to heal the burns. It didn't take me long to get rid of the first degree ones but the second degrees took a bit longer and left an itchy feeling behind when it was all healed. Now where did I put that purple dress, I think I put it inside the wardrobe, if I didn't I'm in big trouble. I peeked through the door to make sure no one was in the room (I was only wearing my underwear, so I'm allowed to be wary) and walked over to the wardrobe. I was praying I had put the dress in the wardrobe. Oh thank goodness I did, I quickly threw the dress over my head and was about to run out of the room when my reflection in the mirror caught my attention. Oh no my hair was a mess (it's a girl thing) it was sticking out all over the place, I didn't have the time to do it again. What was I going to do now let my hair loose or something I giggled sarcastically to myself, actually that's not a bad idea. I quickly started pulling the pins out and shaking out my hair and looked into the mirror again. It would have to do I thought as I looked at my thick pink hair tumble into curls down my back, it was a similar length and style as my mothers. I shook my head trying to get the silly thoughts out of my head and rushed out of the room, I was halfway down the stairs before I heard voices.

"I mean it guys, some things not right here." I heard Minato exclaim, making me freeze in my tracks. I don't usually eavesdrop into other people conversations but the way Minato said it made me want to listen to whatever they were talking about.

"I agree. It can't be a coincidence that Daitora walks into a dress shop with Nariko in it." I heard Itachi add, my body froze, they were talking about the scene I had with Daitora. Why were they getting so involved with nothing?

"Did he even say why he was in there?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

"Hamako says he was in there to pick up a dress for his mum." Minato replied.

"Does that man really think we're that stupid, even Hamako would see what bullshit accuses that is?" Another unknown voice argued. There was a silence in the hallway as you could feel the group's intense thinking.

"Why would he be so interested in Nariko anyway?" Asked the first unfamiliar said calmly.

"Well, the fact that she's a totally hot babe might have something to do with it." The other unknown voice pointed out and a bark to follow it, my face blush at the complement, there was a sudden loud thump and a moan escape the unknown person's mouth. "What the hell was that for Minato? I was only saying the truth." Objected the unknown voice again.

"Goro right, she is one of the most beautiful girl's I've ever met but let's not forget that she also fought against Madara and won. He might want her for his reputation" Itachi added.

"Why would Daitaro want Nariko for his reputation?" Goro complained, as he seemed to lose track of where the conversation was going. I knew how he felt because I was also getting confused about where the talk was going.

"It's simple, Nariko has been named one of the most powerful ninjas in Konohagakure after she defeated Madara and come back alive, if Daitaro and Nariko become a couple then the Kimiko family will become more powerful." The unfamiliar voice confirmed. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine at the thought of me and Daitora becoming a couple. I would prefer to eat rotten garbage for the rest of my life then have one of his greasy finger tips poke my shoulder.

"I also think we should be extra careful." Minato announced. I could just picture everyone turning towards Minato and giving him a weird expression.

"Why?" Goro asked.

"Well, I never exactly told you the whole story." Minato muttered.

"What do you mean you didn't tell us the whole story?" All three other boys chorused. I too was interested in the bit of the story he hadn't told yet.

"I'm not actually sure but after Daitaro left there was a huge bruise on Nariko arm that could only be caused but immense pressure being added to it. I think Daitaro tried to use violence against Nariko." Minato finished, there was a long pause.

"What do you mean 'I think Daitaro tried to use violence against Nariko'?" Itachi asked.

"When Hamako dragged me into the shop, I heard Daitaro yell in pain and saw him leaped back, when I looked over to Nariko, I saw her in a very defensive stance that I've only seen her use in battle." I could feel everyone absorbing this new pieces of information, for a while no one made a sound. I was getting a bit restless until Goro shouted out.

"Who does that son of a bitch think he his?" I asked myself the same question dude, I smirked to myself.

"I can see what you mean by us needing to take extra care." I heard Itachi pitch in, everyone mumbled in agreement. Why were these boys taken this so seriously? I promised Minato I would be more careful. What else do I need to do to prove I don't need looking after? Do I need to kick all their asses and Daitaros' to prove that?

"This is going to be such a drag." I heard the unfamiliar add.

"That may be true Shikaku but Nariko is part of the family now and family always looks out for each other." Itachi stated with Minato and Goro saying something in agreement, I was touched by Itachi words that I swear I nearly cried I managed to pull myself together in the last second though only letting a tear fall down my cheek. As I listened to the boys begin to suggest ideas and tactics to each other, I decided it was time to come out of my hiding place. I tried to make as much noise as possible (without drawing to much obvious attention) as I walked down the stairs to make sure the boys knew I was coming. I tried to pretend to be smoothing down my dress and I walked down the last three stairs, so it didn't look like I had just been eavesdropping.

"Oh, hey boys, I'm not interrupting am I." I asked innocently, trying to make myself look embarrass that I just walked in on something private. I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable as all the boys started staring at me with their mouths dropped wide open.

"No, not at all Nariko." Minato assured, snapping out of his daze first with all the other boys chipping in agreement. "Please, let me introduce you to some of my friends." He suggested, wrapping his arm around me and push me forward a bit more, so I could see the group more clearly. "You already know Itachi from breakfast and this is Shikaku." He paused to point at man about Minato age and average height with long spiky black pulled up into a pony tail, with a lazy like expression to his face and posture. "And this is Goro." He then pointed at a boy also around the same age as everyone else and had short brown spiky hair with to paint marks on his cheeks. A sudden woof caught my attention and when I looked down I saw a tiny white dog.

"Hey little guy." I said, holding my hand out so the dog could sniff it. The puppy took it's time sniffing my hand and took one little lick of my index finger.

"And this dog is Akiyo." Goro introduce as I began tickling Akiyo belly. "He likes you." He added.

"What can I say? Dogs are the greatest." I replied as I finally stopped scratching his tummy and letting him walk back to Goro.

"So you heading back to the party." Minato asked. I pretended to look like I was thinking, just because I felt like it for someone reason.

"I don't know bad luck seems to be attracted to me when I'm at parties." I answered, a little grin spreading across my face.

"Don't worry fair maiden, we shall protected you." Itachi attempted to do in a posh accent, making everyone laugh, as the boys shouted 'here here' in agreement to Itachi.

"Well, if you promise to protect me good knights, I shall go to the ball." I mocked, also in a posh voice. Everyone started laughing their heads off at mine and Itachi little scene. After we managed to calm down a bit Minato –still with his arm wrapped around me- guide me down the hallway, back to the party.


	16. Protection

The boys had kept their promise, even though I said it was only a joke and they should go and have fun, they always replied 'a promise is a promise' It all started well since the second time I walked into the room, everyone didn't stare at me, maybe it was because I was hidden by the large group of boys or maybe they simply lost interest in the pink haired girl. Whatever the reason was, I didn't really care as long as they didn't stare. I actually had fun hanging out with the boys, they made me laugh and always had something interesting to tell, plus Goro provided entertainment by doing something goofy, this usually ended up with Minato or Itachi whacking him around the head. Now and again I would leave the group to go and chat with Jiraiya and Hamako or I would go over and talk to Gaara's family, nevertheless, I always somehow found myself dragged back into the boys group. A few hours into the party I excused myself for some fresh air, since I was getting hot. I squeezed myself through the crowd and was about to walk out onto the balcony, until I accidently bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." I stumble quickly trying to regain my balance. The girl turned towards, so I could see her face for the first time. She was probably the most beautiful girl in this room, with long black hair tied back into a high ponytail, her skin was flawless and she wore a beautiful dark blue dress with a very low v-neck.

"Can't you go anywhere without bumping into people?" She snapped back at me, before grabbing her friends hand and dragging her off somewhere else. I stood there frozen to the spot. Ouch, there was no need for such rudeness, I thought to myself as I shook my head and continued to walk outside onto the balcony. I thought I had gone deaf for a second, until I realised it was because there was noise outside compared to the loud music and chatting inside. I learnt against the wall, letting the cool breeze caress my hot skin. The sky was blazing with lights as the stars flew across the sky, my thoughts flying with them.

"Beautiful aren't they." A low lazy voice spoke beside me. I turned to see the grey haired man leaning against the wall next to me with a book called Icha Icha in front of his face. How could he see the stars if he has that stupid book in front of his face?

"Huh." I replied, looking away from the book and back at the stars.

"What's that meant to mean?" He asked defensively as he pulled his book out of face, reviling a masked cover face. His lone eye was eyeing me up and down, as if he was examining me like I was some interesting two-headed creature.

"Nothing. I just didn't take you for the porn type." I answered, his face twisted like I had just said the meanest thing in the universe.

"It's not porn, it's romance." He insisted, placing the book in his back pocket. That's when I notice he was the only one at the party who was wearing his jonin uniform. Talk about rude, being too lazy to change in to something nice for one night.

"Look old man. I've read the Icha Icha series. It. Is. Porn." I stated, turning away from him and staring back at the stars because I rather look at those then him at the moment. I had the annoying feeling that I knew this guy but couldn't figure out where.

"Look, I didn't come here to argue. I just came here to see if you were ok cause I sure the fight with Sayuri Uchiha." He asked, his voice turning into a softer tone then before. So that was the girl's name, then that means she's related to Itachi. How someone so nice could be related to someone so mean is a mystery to me.

"I'm fine thanks." I replied, not really knowing what to say to this guy, since he was scaring me a bit. The man just shrugged and got out his book again, he was about to walk back in when he stopped and turned back to me.

"I'm Kakashi by the way." He stated and then walked back inside. What a strange man? I thought, turning my attention back to the stars. Slowly, I let my eyes drift close as I absorbed the fresh atmosphere around me. A sudden spike of a dangerous charka above me made my eyes lids shot open, as I tried to grab a kunai from my invisible pouch. Damn! I thought as I tried to move out of the way but I was not fast enough as the attacker wrapped his iron arms around my neck, cutting off air to my wind pipe, so it was impossible to shout for help. I tried everything. I punched and I kicked. I even got so desperate that I started clawing at his eyes but it was like my fingers were trying to dig up concrete. The man laughed at my desperate struggle to free myself. My vision was becoming darker and darker, as my lungs burned and choked for oxygen. Think Nariko! Think! I screamed at myself. I began forcing raw charka through my body, so I was blazing in lilac fire, it worked as a yelp of pain cried out from behind me. The arm around my neck disappeared, letting me collapse on to the ground grasping for air. I didn't have much time to recover as I felt the man behind me getting up and racing towards me. I barely dodge his punch as I rolled out of the way, swinging my body I scissor kicked his legs so they fell beneath him, doing a fishy roll over my shoulder as the man fell over. As soon as I was up I had to dodge a bunch of kunai's giving the man time to get back up and lunged at me again. I nearly fell over as I caught his leg to stop his attack. For a big man he sure was fast, I thought, since it was the only thing I could tell about him. His whole body was covered in black, even his mask he was wearing to hide his face. I took this opportunity to kick at his balls and the back of his knee, so he fell over; while he was falling he threw a bunch of shruikens at me. They were easy to dodge as I did a back-flip to move out of harm's way and tried to put some distance between us. When I looked at him again I saw him pull out an... EXPLOSIVE TAG! SHIT! I was getting myself ready to jump off the side of the building to dodge the explosion, when I saw a yellow, blue and silver blur flashed past in front of me. I felt another unknown presence behind me, I was about to attack, until I examined the presence behind me more and found out whoever this was, was not dangerous.

"Are you ok?" I heard a kind voice sounded behind me. I simply nodded as I watched the scene unfold in front of me. Minato and Kakashi were tying the attacker up, while Itachi was dis-arming him. I could see the murderous look in their eyes and was wondering how they could hold themselves back when I felt the Hokage angry charka and Sasuke pissed off charka signal appear beside me.

"Sasuke, get this man locked up and under twenty-four hour watch." He commanded firmly, I knew I defiantly would have followed that order; otherwise I was sure I would get my ass kicked. Sasuke muttered something in return before walking over to the prisoner, before he went he gave a quick smile to Itachi before disappearing in a puff of smoke, my mouth fell open in shock. Sasuke. Just. Smiled. If that doesn't scream 'the end of the universe is coming' then I don't know what is.

"I think she's gone into shock." The girl's voice cried behind me, snapping me back to reality.

"I'm ok, I'm just never seen Sasuke smile before." I answered, turning around to face the girl for the first time. She had the same eyes as Hinata and Hamako, with pale skin and middle length, dark brown hair falling past her shoulders. I hadn't notice Itachi, Minato and Kakashi had walked back over and had heard what I said.

"What do you mean he never smiles? Dad smiles all the time." Itachi inquired, I took in what Itachi said and ran it through my mind trying to make sense of it.

"I've never seen him smile?" I asked, confusion written all over my face.

"Dad's just shy around strangers." He smiled; I was starting to get a headache absorbing the new and very strange information into my brain.

"I think I'll stick with my theory that your dad hates me." I answer finally rubbing the temples on my head to sooth the headache. "That way my brain doesn't hurt so much." I knew I was cursed but its official. I am super curse when I'm wearing a dress.

**You still look hot in it.**

Must we argue now! I have a headache.

**Hey! I was just saying.**

"I'm sorry did you say something." I asked Kakashi, as I just realised he had been trying to tell me something.

"I said, you should probably have someone take a look at you." He replied. It took me a while to realise what he meant by that question. Kami, my brain was acting really slowly tonight.

"Why?" I questioned, not understanding why I needed to see a medic when I was perfectly fine. "It's not like I'm hurt or something." I finished with everyone staring at me like I was half crazy.

"Are you mad!" Cried Minato, proving my point that they thought I was crazy. "How do you explain those bruises on your neck?" Bruises? What bruises? The guy barely touched me, only when the attacker was str... I froze, thinking back to the beginning of the fight where the man had attacked me from behind. Well, he did nearly crush my wind pipe, I thought, as I began stroking my neck.

"Ouch!" I hissed, touching a tender spot on my neck. I guess the guy left me a little present to remember him by.


	17. Headaches

The only reason I got up the next morning was because Hamako and my little fan club came bouncing onto my bed. Apparently my hair dressing skills had earned me the title of God by little girls. The fan club consisted of Hamako, Shikaku little sister Yuzuki and Itachi youngest little sister Umiko.

"Five more minutes." I whined, pulling the covers back over my head and snuggling back down again.

"But you said five minutes, five minutes ago." She whined as she began pounding me with a pillow. "Me, Yuzuki and Umiko want to show off cool hair styles at school today." Ah school, the good old days as people would say, ironic because I didn't go to school.

"What time is it?" I muffled through the covers.

"It's seven- thirty." The girl's answered. What? Seven-thirty! How could they expect a person to function at that hour?

"Sorry kids. My working hours are between ten and four, plus I have weekends off." I mumbled, trying to drift back into a nice peaceful sleep, hoping to regain some of my sanity. Now back to that lovely dream about me kicking Daitora butt in a death match of rock, paper, scissors. However, Hamako had one last trick up her sleeve.

"If you don't do our hair I'll make sure we'll eat all your pancakes." My eyes snapped open as a response to the threat.

"You wouldn't dare." I accused, sitting up now and giving all of them a death glare. I don't care how cute these five year olds are. No one threatens my stomach and gets away from it. "If you eat all my pancakes I would have to tickle torture all of you." At that moment all of the girls screamed as they tried to desperately get away, however, I was faster and managed to grab Hamako and Umiko and start tickling their feet. They both shrieked with giggles erupting from their mouths. I managed to duck in time as Yuzuki tried to hit me around the head with a pillow. Hamako and Umiko took this moment to escape; I started chasing all the giggling girls around the room and started tickling them. When we had finished we all collapse onto the bed, laughing our heads off.

"Will you do our hair now Nariko?" Yuzuki asked, putting on a puppy dog look, all of the girls followed her lead and started putting on the cutest face they could come up with. I sighed to myself and rolled my eyes at their attempts just to get their hair done. When I looked at them again my insides melted, only a monster would turn down those faces.

"All right." I cried, throwing my arms up in defeat. All the girls cheered in triumph and started pulling me towards the mirror to start discussion about what hair style they wanted.

Kami my neck felt really stiff. I had healed the bruises from last night but I couldn't do anything about the strain on my muscles. What I needed was a massage, maybe someone knew a good spa I could go too, so I could louse up my muscles. When I entered the dining room for breakfast I was surprised by how quiet it was. I mean it wasn't actually quiet but after last night I was expecting a louder conversions, all the adults were up one end of the table leaning close together in silent discussion, the teenagers were sitting in the middle also in deep discussions with each other. The only people that were making any noise were the kids, messing around with each other. Instead of sitting with the teenagers I sat with the kids because whatever they were discussing I didn't think I had a part in it. I sat myself next to Jiraiya and grabbed a bunch of pancakes off the plate in front of me and dumped them on my plate. No one really notice me sitting down, which I was kind of glad about cause I wasn't really in a talking mood, since some little kids decided to wake me up really early in the morning at do their hair. I slowly chewed the pancakes(since I couldn't really chew properly cause of my painful neck) so I just sat and listened to Jiraiya and the twins conversations about who's dad could throw a shrunken better. At the moment it was between Neji (Hamako Uncle) and Sasuke. I was also trying to debate who was better from the information I was hearing until my head started feeling dizzy. I felt like I was going to be sick, I quickly got up to rush to the toilet but all of a sudden all I could see was darkness.

_It was night time, it was raining heavily, I guess you can't expect anything else in the land of water. I was trying to catch the raindrops in my little hands. I was two years at the time and was strapped to my mother's chest as we walked along a grey path. That's when I notice something poking at my mind. I concentrated on it trying to decide what it was. That's when I realised it was someone trying to speak to me._

"_Mummy" I cried looking up to face her. My mother looked down at me, surprised to see a sudden look of fear on my face. _

"_What is it darling?" She asked, stroking my wet hair, it soothed me a little but not enough to tell her the important news._

"_The voices came to warn us mummy." I cried, shaking from the cold and what I had just been told. My mother wrapped her arms around my small frame protectively, pulling me closer to her chest so I felt the warmth of her skin against my cold cheeks._

"_What voices darling?" She asked. Fear was starting to grow obvious in her face; I chewed my bottom lip, thinking carefully what I was going to say._

"_The bad man's coming to get us mummy. The man they call the master."_

If I thought my neck hurt before it really hurt now, so did my head. I tried to move but strong hands held me down, telling me to stay where I was. I was happy to compile since I still felt a bit dizzy and my eye lids were too heavy to open, something wet was slowly running down my face. What the hell had just happened? I wondered as I lay still on the floor and something like warm liquid flowed through my body. I knew I should have gone back to bed when I had a chance, a sudden stab of pain explored in my head as the cool liquid was trying to fight the pain inside my head. I screamed in pure agony, my fingers clawing at my face to try and stop the pain and my breathing became more rapid. I had never felt something so painful in my whole life. It was like someone was trying to force a drill through my head. The cold liquid seemed to disappear instantly after my shriek of pain leaving only a throbbing pain in my head. I lay there, waiting for the pain to subside. Gradually it did, my breathing started to slow down and I was able to open my eye lids. My vision was a bit blurry, showing a mixture of shapes and colours, when it began to focus a bit, I began to see the outlines of people, and then I could see everyone clearly. There was a whole group of people standing around me. Kami! My head really hurts. I saw Grandma Tsunade trying to say something to me but my mind refused to register whatever it was. Instead I just kept blinking back up at them. I saw Tsunade turn her head away from me and barked orders at someone. Before I knew it, strong arms lifted me up into the air and carried me back to my room, placing me on the soft mattress. I didn't see who carried me into the room, since Tsunade blocked my view. She began doing all these tests, flashing a touch into my eyes and checking my pulse. Gradually my headache began to sub-side as well and my hearing began to return. Why did it have to happen now? I stopped having those things when I was twelve. Why is it coming back now? Worse yet I'll have to explain it when they ask if it's happen before.

**Lie then!**

I can't lie! I'm rubbish at it!

**It's simple, say the opposite of the truth.**

Wow! Like I never knew that.

**Just think about it.**

"Nariko, can you hear me." A warm gentle voice spoke to me. I wasn't sure where it came from, until Tsunade spoke again, making me shocked cause I never heard Tsunade speak so nicely. "Nariko if you can hear me nod your head." Tsunade asked. I nodded to answer her question. I heard a few sighs of relief, making me realise that there was more than one person in the room. I tried to push myself up but Tsunade firmly push me back down.

"No you need to rest." She stated, giving me one of those glares that says 'mess with me and you will pay' however, I wasn't going to back down that easily.

"But I'm fine now, I swear." I protested, which wasn't the truth because I still had a massive headache that I knew was going to be there for at least an hour. The woman could tell I was lying even before I could get the second word out, which I wasn't really surprised about.

"You just collapsed in the middle of the dining room and when I tried to examine you, you screamed out in pure agony. Excuse me if I'm wrong but I think that just screams you're not fine." I commented, trying to surpass her angry and remain professional.

"I promise I'm ok, I've had these before and I know how to handle them." I snapped back, not realising my mistake until I actually made it. So much for lying, I thought.

"How many times has this happened before?" She asked, her anger disappearing and turning into worry.

"I don't know. I had them a lot when I was little but the stopped when I was around twelve, at least I thought they did." I answered.

"How could you not tell us this before?" I heard Minato shout from somewhere. I fought to sit up, pushing Tsunade arms away when she tried to push me back down. Finally being able to sit up I could see that Minato, Itachi, Goro, Shikaku, Naruto, Hinata, Kakashi, Sasuke and some girl who seemed familiar but I couldn't place where I saw her before. Tough crowd. I wondered as I looked at everyone in the room, staring the longest at the girl.

"Sorry but I can't remember where I scene you before." I said to the girl, as I was trying to rattle my head desperately trying to remember where I had seen her before.

"We met at the party last night, after the attack." She smiled. Last night's events popped into my mind as I finally remember.

"You look really different with your hair tied up like that." I pondered. Well it was true. Last night she had a sliver flowing dress on and her hair was loosely hanging around her shoulder blades. Now she had her hair tied up into two buns and was wearing a pink high collared top and brown baggy pants.

"Don't try to change the subject." Minato interrupted, glaring at me. Why does everyone have to shout at me every time I bring something up that about my health? I wondered, annoyed by Minato rudeness.

"Like I said, I thought they disappeared when I was twelve." I snapped, not backing down from Minato's angry glares. Our staring contest was interrupted when Itachi shook Minato shoulder and shook his head in disagreement, making Minato instantly back down. I wish I could do that, I admired.

"Well, I want to keep you here and let you rest for the day, so I can see what causes these headaches of yours." Tsunade stated. My mouth fell open in pure horror.

"You can't be serious." I whined, my face still frozen in shock.

"Oh, I'm serious. Unless you can find some excuse why I shouldn't" She demanded. You can't expect a person to be locked up inside all day. That's torture.

"Simple. I'll die of boredom." I almost yelled, throwing my arms up in protest.

"Sorry, I'm afraid that's not good enough." She smirked, thinking she had won."We'll just have to keep you here, until I think it safe enough to let you go." Anger swelled up in me to a boiling point. They can't just decide what's best for me; I've already been through this process of trying to figure out why the hell these headaches happen and why I pass out. My mum tried and that didn't work out so well. I felt my anger trying to break through my skin as was trying desperately surpassing it.

"I'll like to see you try." I snapped, before anyone could react fast enough. I made a sign with my fingers and disappeared in a swirl of cherry blossoms.


	18. You're Finally Home

Maybe disappearing in a swirl of petals without telling anybody where I was going (especially when their worried about you in the first place) wasn't the best idea. I didn't even know where I was. I looked along the cliffs edge again to stare at the two stone figures standing near the waterfall. I didn't know how long I had been sitting along the cliff top, I remember when I got here the sun was high in the east, now it was low in the west. Sighing to myself, I shuffled to a comfortable position, so I could watch the sunset. I hadn't moved from this spot ever since I got here, I didn't know what it was but I found the place very calming. It seemed to wash out all of my anger, leaving me to feel peaceful.

**Well you've done it now.**

I know.

**They'll never let you back after that bratty performance.**

I know.

**They'll hunt you down like everyone else.**

I know.

**...**

...

**You are so stupid.**

Excuse me.

**They'll not going to run after you with pitchforks and clubs.**

They'll more likely to use kunai's.

**Oh for goodness sake.**

What now?

**They would have chucked you out of the Fire country by now if they didn't like you.**

I know that.

**Then why are you so upset.**

I just hate myself.

**What's that meant to mean?**

I don't know how to react around people and ... I thought I was starting to understand.

**So you hate yourself for making a mistake.**

Pretty much.

**You do realise that's what being humans all about. **

What?

**Making mistakes.**

Well, yeah but...

**But nothing, stop acting like a child and pull yourself together.**

...

**...**

Thanks.

**For what?**

The advice.

**Kami! Are you thanking me?**

Don't get used to it.

I smiled to myself. What goes on in my head sometimes makes me laugh, watching the sunset for a few more seconds, I finally got up and dusted myself down. I might as well return and say I'm sorry before Tsunade finds me and kills me instead. How I was going to ask for forgiveness was going to be on my thoughts all the way to the Hokage residence. I took once last look over my shoulder to see the sunset one more time before heading towards home.

Home, sounds kind of nice. I wondered as I walked along the streets of Konohagakure. I had thought long and hard about what I was going to say but so far had come up with nothing solid. As I walked closer and closer to the Hokage residence my heart began to pump faster and faster, I was getting nervous. What if I crossed the line this morning? What if they don't forgive me? I shook the ideas out of my head, determined to at least say sorry before I make a run for it at least, just remember to breathe I kept telling myself. I was right outside Hokage tower now, when a small shiver suddenly creep down me back.

"Everyone's been looking for you." I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to see it was Daitaro standing behind me with an annoying smirk on his face. That explains the shiver, I thought.

"What do you want?" I demanded, still not forgetting the day in the dress shop. His annoying smirk grew even bigger, turning it even more annoying than before. He took a step towards me, making me take a step back. This little reaction made Daitaro burst out laughing. Annoyed with this little show I turned around to enter the building but was stopped when Daitaro suddenly appeared in front of me.

"I hope you're still not upset with our misunderstanding at the dress shop." He asked, standing a few inches in front of me, our bodies nearly touching each other.

"I don't get upset about misunderstandings, though I get really pissed off when annoying people are standing in my way!" I yelled back, pushing myself roughly past him. Before he could stop me, I ran into the Hokage tower, hoping he wasn't crazy enough to follow. It took me longer to walk up the stairs then I remember, as I made my way up the flight of steps. My body and brain were arguing with each other all the way up the staircase and to the Hokage's office. Knocking on the door, I shuffled from foot to foot, waiting for someone to answer.

"Come in." I heard Naruto yell through the door. Taking one last deep breath I opened the door and walked into the office. I hadn't actually been in the Hokage's office before; I only knew where it was because Hamako gave me a quick tour of the place the day when I came back from the hospital. The room was quite large with bookcases along the walls and a desk in the centre of the room piled high with paper and files. Naruto hadn't even bothered to look up from the report he was writing until I slammed the door behind me.

"Nariko." He finally acknowledge, as he looked up from his from his report. He stared at me for a few moments, as if he couldn't believe I was actually standing in his office.

"I can pinch you if you like to know if I'm real or not." I commented, after waiting in a few moments of silence. The Hokage suddenly smiled.

"I only need to hear one of your sarcastic comments to know it's you." He laughed but his face turned quickly back to being serious. "Everyone's been searching for you." He stated, flickering the pen he had been writing with between his fingers.

"I've heard." I answered, watching one of the Hokage's eyebrows crook up in surprise. "Daitaro was happy enough to pass the message to me." The Hokage nodded in understanding.

"Care to explain why you disappeared for nearly the whole day?" He asked kindly. I sighed quietly to myself as I prepared myself for an award winning speech I had been working on. I took a big breath before I began.

"I was upset. I am not used to being told what to do or have anyone look after me and I don't like people looking after me, it just makes me feel useless and weak, it's also not something I'm use too. The way I reacted with Tsunade was wrong and I apologised for that, I just don't know how to react around people. I got angry at myself for being an idiot because I thought I was getting better, so in a mood I disappeared." I finished, waiting Naruto to reply. Instead he just sat there in deep concentration, playing with his pen. The suspense was killing me; this must be some kind of torture method they use to get the prisoners to break. It was then I realised I had a few tears dipping down my cheeks, turning around I swiped the tears away, opening the Hokage hadn't notice. When I turned back around I found Naruto standing in front of me, before I knew it he embraced me in a big hug, the type I had seen Naruto give Hamako when she was upset over something. For some reason I returned the embrace, even though it wasn't something I was used to; more tears began leaking down my cheeks as I wept silently. Naruto was giving me pats on the back and making hush noises, as he tried to comfort me.

"It's ok your home now."


	19. To A Good Match

A few days had passed since the disappearing indicant, we managed to work everything out but Tsunade was still a little pissed off, until Naruto slipped her a few sakes then she was happier than a kid at Christmas. I had also become good friends with Nene (Hamako cousin) and I would usually walk the kids to school, along with one of the boys or Nene but when Friday came everything was a little different. It started out the same with Hamako running in demanding that I needed to do her hair, I would summon a clone so I could get another half an hour of sleep before getting up for breakfast. What was different about today was everyone in the dining room was different. Instead of wearing their usual casual clothes everyone was wearing training gear. I felt like the odd one out with my trainers, black shorts and red t-shirt. I took my seat between Nene and Minato, as usual Sayuri was giving me evils across the table but I ignored it since the act was so last Tuesday. To be honest I was too hungry to actually care, plus I didn't know why she hated me in the first place and I was too lazy to find out why, so I just let her stare.

"Are you looking forward to the training session today, Nariko?" Goro asked as I was putting a spoon of cereal in my mouth.

"What?" I muffled, as I wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"Dad invited you to our training sessions on Fridays, remember." Minato said. I remember as soon as he said it. How could I forget it? It was followed by that silly fight afterwards.

"Sorry, I just forgot." I replied as I continued to eat my cereal. All the boys started to talk about new techniques they had been working on and were looking forward to testing them out; they were also excited about which person they were going to fight in the hat system.

"Hat system?" I asked, curious.

"It's this system Uncle Naruto invented, so everyone could have a chance to fight against a different person." Nene answered. "Basically, it's just picking names out of a hat." Names out of a hat. Simple but effective. This was going to be fun, I can't wait to try out some of the new jutsu I've been working on, plus I can't wait to see what everyone else's fighting abilities are like.

Everyone met at the top of the Hokage Monument (well everyone that wasn't at breakfast this morning) after we dropped the kids off at school. There were a lot of people at the training session, some I knew well and some I had only said a few words or had only seen at a distance, everyone was dressed in their jonin or chunin outfit (expect me), which I thought was really funny cause I thought everyone looked like a clone of each other. Once everyone had arrived, we all made our way to the training grounds. It was just a bare ground with a few trees surrounding it. I stared at the place in wonder; this is going to be so much fun. I thought.

"Why are you jumping up and down like a kid who eating too much chocolate?"Asked Nene, as she was doing a little warm up next to me, everyone seemed to be doing warm-up expect Naruto, Kakashi and Neji, who were writing everyone's names down. I wonder who I'm going to be paired up with, I wondered as I began doing a little warm-up of my own because it seemed better then standing around doing nothing. A shiver went up my back as I felt someone's eyes digging into my back. It's probably Sayrui giving me evils again I thought as I stood up again to stretched my arms but froze when I saw Sayrui standing a few metres in front of me and talking to Minato. Spinning around to look behind me I saw no one there but a bunch of trees, that was weird I thought, turning back around to stare at Minato and Sayrui again. I hadn't notice when I looked before but now I could see a whole different Sayrui. She was not the same Sayrui that gave evils across the table to me every day (reasons why I will probably never understand) but she was laughing and flicking her hair every time Minato said something. Kami! Was Sayrui was flirting with Minato. No way would Minato fall for a bone head like that. At least I thought so, until I saw Sayrui say something and Minato laugh at her. Kami! I thought Minato was little smarter than that to a least pick someone nice. Oh well, you can't pick and chose who you like and who you don't like. I told myself as I shrugged off the annoying feeling building up in my chest. Man I'm getting jumpy lately, I decided as I continued with my warm up. After a few moments on reflecting on myself, finishing my warm-up and was winning a debate against Goro about what was a better weapon when Naruto voice echo across the training grounds.

"Ok everyone, gather around." He called; instantly everyone stopped what they were doing and walked over to where Naruto was standing, I was a second slow, since I'm not use to the whole system yet. I watched as Naruto went along the line of people, so everyone could take out a piece of folded paper out of the little hat that Naruto was using. I was listening carefully to hear what names were being called out. I was narrowing down with people I could still fight against, until Naruto stood in front of me and placed the hat in front of me. I grabbed one of the pieces of paper on the top of the pile and opened it. I had to surpass an annoyed groan as I read out the name I had picked out.

"Kakashi Hatake." I called out, placing the piece of paper in my pocket. Great, just what I need, training with the strange man. I surpassed another sigh and looked down the end of the line where Kakashi was standing reading his book -as usual- he quickly looked over his book and gave me a quick wave, before reading again. He really is a strange man, I thought, turning my attention away from him again. We had to wait for everyone to finish picking out names before the training could begin. I had to wait for three battles to pass before I could have my fight, so everyone who wasn't fighting had to wait along the side. First up was Goro and Nene, they were both pretty good. Goro had a lot of stamina and was able to move around quickly and officially with Akiyo but Nene won overall as she activated her Byakugan and was able to stop all over Goro sneaky attacks. Next was Gaara and Lee, this battle was also very exciting as Lee moved faster than I thought possible and Gaara blocking him with his sand shield, in the end Naruto had to end the match in a draw. The next battle was the most exciting; it was between Itachi and Minato. They were both outstanding; they both had the same stamina, the same speed and the same strength, it was impossible to tell who would win the battle with all the amazing techniques they were using. In the end no one won as Naruto announced a draw. Now it was my turn. I stood up and walked to the centre of the field, Kakashi took his time to walk the field, and he was still reading that stupid book. When I get a chance I'm going to kick it out of his hands.

"Nariko do you feel ready for this." Naruto asked. I hadn't notice that he had walked over to the field with me.

"Yeah, Nene already explained the rules to me." I answered, Naruto nodded and returned to the side of the field, letting me focus all my attention back on Kakashi. Just in time to see him place his book in his back pocket. I hope that means he's willing to take me seriously, I wondered as I got into a fighting stance.

"Begin!" Naruto shouted, announcing the beginning of the match. I didn't hesitate to grab some kunai's out of my pouch and throw them directly at Kakashi, they hit dead on target as Kakashi began falling backwards, there was suddenly a puff of smoke and in its place was a piece of wood. A substitution jutsu, I thought, as I scanned my surroundings. Where was he? Where did he go? A faint spark of charka from behind me caught my attention, spinning around and aiming a high kick towards his head, he ducked out of the way and tried to kick my legs from underneath me, I dodged easily by jumping high in the air, he then threw a few shiruken at me but I knocked them aside by grabbing a kunai out of my pouch and used it to knock all the shurikens away. Landing gently back onto my feet I sent some charka to my feet and sped off towards Kakashi. The battle continued for ten minutes, even though it felt like ten hours, it was a fierce battle. We were mostly using taijutsu against each other, until Kakashi decided to send a fire ball jutsu in my direction and then a dragon waterfall jutsu at me. I wanted nothing better than to force a fiery spiritual ball into his stomach but I kept reminding myself it was a friendly fight but it was after he reviled what was under his forehead protector, that he really pissed me off.

"It seems, I' underestimated you." He stated, lifting his hand to his protector "But I think it's time to finish this." Without warning he pulled up his band up to show a spinning bloody red eye. Eeeww, I thought as I stared at it. I had seen the same eyes used by Madara and Itachi, I already knew it wasn't going to work on me; still I was now pissed off at him for using it. Time to try out some new techniques I thought, creating some hand signs. There was loud crack, before anyone could figure out what was going on water burst out of the ground and floated out into the air, it floated around for a bit before turning into giant icy spikes. They all turned to Kakashi direction, sending a little more charka the ice daggers started to zoom towards Kakashi, my efforts were in vain as Kakashi was able to dodge all of them and place safe distance between us, in the distance I saw him bite his thumb so it bleed and began doing some hand signs, in a puff of smoke I saw a whole group of dogs appear. He summoned a pack of dogs but for what? Suddenly, Kakashi and his dogs began running towards me, they were going to try a group assault. I had to react fast as I pulled a kunai out of my belt and cut my hand and doing some signs of my own

"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu" I mumbled under my breath and slammed my hand down, just in time as well as the dogs and Kakashi had to jump back from the large amount of smoke that appeared in front of them. A loud high-pitch growl sent shivers down everyone's spine. All of a sudden a giant white wolf jumped out of the smoke with me riding it, heading straight for Kakashi. I order my wolf to deal with pups (but not to hurt them too badly) when I jumped into the air and tried to kick Kakashi in the face. He barely managed to block it as I sent another kick with my other foot sending him flying across the field. I quickly raced over to him as he got back up and tried to produce some hand signs but had to stop as kunai met kunai in a fierce locked down battle, as our eyes met. His eye began spinning again as I stared back into it, I could feel he was trying to use a genjutsu on me. I nearly laugh when I saw his eyes widen in shock when he realised it wasn't working. Quickly pushing myself away from him, I jumped into the air as I produced as quick clone and threw them at Kakashi, he stopped it by throwing a shruikan at it but I only needed the shadow clone to distract him long enough, so he won't see me use my invisibility jutsu and sneak up behind him. I kicked him hard in the back, before he could get back off the ground I grabbed both of his hands and dig my knees into his back so he couldn't move.

"I win." I whispered; as I placed a kunai to his neck and let my invisibility fade off.

"Winner is Nariko." Naruto announced, a roar echoed through the crowd as everyone cheered. One point to me, zero to Kakashi. I quickly got off his back and was about to leave until I remember something my mum once said. Sighing to myself I turned around and held out my hand to Kakashi, while he was attempting to get back up, he stared at my hand as if it was the strangest thing in the world.

"To a good match." I said, my hand still hanging, he smiled as he took my hand. so I could help him up.

"Yeah, to a good match." He answered, giving my hand a good shake.


	20. The bandit and the wolf

Training was really good. After my fight with Kakashi, we had grown to a new level of understanding, until I stole his book when he wasn't looking and began to read it myself. Even though I had already read the book I was bored and remember there were some funny bits in it. No one had notice I had taken the book and was reading it, until Goro came over to see what I was doing and screamed in pure horror when he saw me reading it. When Kakashi realised it was his book, he marched over and snatched it out of my hands and put it back in his pocket.

"You're too young to read this." He said, giving me a telling off glare.

"Who cares? I've already read. I just wanted to read the funny bits." I answered, folding my arms to my chest in a defiant way. The man just rolled his eyes at my gesture and also folded his arms but in a more 'adult telling the kid off' kind of way, making me almost laughed at his confidence.

"Just don't take my stuff without asking, ok." He advised, walking back to the adults. I guess he did have a point; I shouldn't have taken his book. Oh well, he'll have to get used to it cause I plan on stealing it in the future just to annoy him. Everyone was packing up their belongings now, since training was finished and we were going to head off for a late lunch. I didn't bring much expect for a bottle of water, a towel and my medic kit. Next time I'll remember to bring my book, so I have something to do in the future, while we're taking breaks.

"Who knew our sweet innocent Nariko actually had a dirty side?" Itachi whispered in my ear, letting a little giggle escape my mouth.

"What can I say, I have a dark side?" I whispered back, making Itachi let out a little laugh this time. We both relaxed under the shade for a minute, watching everyone packing their stuff away.

"So did you enjoy our training session?" He asked. I turned to see he had picked up a daisy from somewhere and was twirling it between his fingers.

"Yeah! It was amazing you were all really amazing out there." I replied. I saw Itachi was about to answer when a familiar charka appear on my other side. I turned to smile at Minato who was now leaning against the tree next to me, sharpening one of his kunai's.

"You were pretty impressive out there yourself." He smiled, showing of his wide sparkly teeth. I could feel my face warming up from the complement. I bit the inside of my mouth, until I bleed to control myself before replying.

"Thanks." We continued with our little discussion, until someone called us over to say they were going. I told the boys to go ahead and that I would catch up with them as I walked over to pick up my rucksack, which I had left over by the bench that I was sitting on earlier to watch the fight. Just as I was standing back up, a force suddenly made me fall over. Ouch! I thought, as I tried to get back up but couldn't, look over my shoulder there was a large shruiken buried deep into my back. What the fuck? I shouted to myself. That's when I notice the purple liquid dripping off it. Please don't tell me that's poison dripping off that thing, I thought. I tried moving my arms but they felt like jelly, whatever this poison was it was acting quickly. Someone's laughter caught my attention; I looked behind me again to see a clocked figure walking towards me. What am I going to do? There poison was acting too fast for me to fight back and I was losing blood. Plus everyone had already walked around the corner so they wouldn't have seen me being attacked but they shouldn't be too far away to hear a loud explosion. This was my only shot, as the dark figure was getting closer and closer towards me. With difficulty I managed to reach into my pouch and pull out an explosive tag. I hope this works, I pondered as my vision began to blur. I randomly through the kunai in a random direction, the tag went off making a fierce and loud explosion which echo through the training grounds, birds flew from their trees, in a desperate attempted to get away. The clocked figure had realised what I had done and was no running to me. With every bit of strength I had left in my arms I began pulling myself across the ground, leaving a bloody trail. I just needed to stay away from him long enough, until everyone else gets here; at least I hope their coming back. Something suddenly pulled me roughly up by my head and was shaking me.

"The guy did say you would be a tricky one." The cloaked figure spat in my face, smiling, he lumped me over his shoulder and began running for the cover of the forest. This guy may be sneaky but he was stupid. I still had a little be of energy left in my arms to produce my summoning jutsu again. I couldn't see what was happening exactly but I could hear the man shriek in surprise and suddenly being dropped to the ground with a loud thump, as if I wasn't injured enough already. I could hear the painful yells and the deadly growls of my wolf as the man was being ripped apart limb from limb. The sounds of what was happening and the pain in my back were too painful for me to listen to anymore. My thoughts were flying all over the place when I finally blacked out.

_It was deadly cold in the snow country; Mum had told me to stay near the camp fire, while she went off to grab more fire wood. I had tried my best to keep the fire alight but in the end the flame was so small and weak the wind blow it out, I was clutching onto my knees and rocking back and forth trying to keep warm. A sudden bloody howl echoed through the forest. Now most girls my age would run like hell in the other direction but since I wasn't I did the complete opposite and went looking for the sound. The noise was impossible to trace since it seemed to be coming all over the place. I almost gave up, when I saw a sudden movement in the distance, I could see a beautiful white wolf walking in my direction, at least I thought she was walking until she came closer and I could see she was limping and that her white coat was covered in blood. That's when I noticed her carrying a little pup in her mouth. She stopped right in front of me, both of us never taking our eyes off each other. I sat down, showing I was refusing to move. Gradually she began to move closer to and put the pup in my lap, it wriggled, showing me it was still alive. I check it for injuries and found quite a few but I was able to heal them easily. When I had finished I looked up to hand the pup back to her mother but I discovered the mother wolf laying down on the snow floor, not breathing. I cuddled the pup tight to my chest as silently cried for the white wolf._

I knew I was starting to regain conscience because I could feelWakana soft fur on one of my sides and someone's warm hands on my other, I knew it was Tsunade who was beside me because I could feel the cool liquid flow through my veins, healing the wounds in my back. The strong smell of blood filled the air; it had to be the cloaked figures blood since the smell was too strong to be mine. Two other chakra signals caught my attention, flicking open my eyes I could see the concern faces of Nene and Minato also kneeling beside me but were a bit further away, so Tsunade could do her job.

"Are you all right."Nene asked, as she tried to hold back tears. I smiled, to give her a little comfort.

"If I say no, does that mean your treat me to a free bowl of ramen." I teased, hearing not only loud sighs of relief from Minato and Nene but from people I couldn't see. They must be examining the scene around me and are trying to figure what happen, I thought as the feeling in my arms began to return. I had to lay there for a few moments with only Nene and Minato to keep me company. Gradually, my muscles began working again and the pain in my back disappears.

"I'm finished but you'll have some stiffness's in your back for a little while." Tsunade said as the last bit of pain disappeared. I rolled over (being careful not to roll on Wakana tail) and stretched my back to test it out. She was right, it was stiff and I was pretty sure it was going to be longer then a 'little while' to heal completely. I gave Wakana a quick kiss on the muzzle for a thank you and promised to give her a treat later. Then I gave a quick nod to Tsunade in silent thanks.

"You going to tell us what happen then?" Minato asked with a serious look on his face, it made me look very attractive, shaking the thoughts from my head afterwards.

"Sneaky bastard snuck up behind me when I was picking up my bag." I answered. Pushing my hair back out of my eyes, looking down at my clothes they were all covered in blood, I really liked those shorts as well, I thought sadly and I was defiantly going to need a new t-shirt as well since my shirt was now mostly in rips and was have trouble covering my bra. Suddenly Minato flung his jonin jacket at me.

"Something to help you cover up." He smiled with a wink. I muttered my thanks and zipped up the jacket. I could feel Wakana wrap herself tighter around me after Minato's comment and let out a little growl.

"Calm down Wakana he's only playing." I whispered, stroking the top of her head to calm her down. I wasn't sure but I think I saw Nene and Minato crawl back a bit, making laugh a little bit.

After my attack Naruto sent everyone home to clean-up, expect Sasuke, Kakashi, Tenten and Neji (Nene mum and dad) who he asked to meet at his office in half an hour. It felt good to wash the blood off and put some clean clothes on. I was sitting at the desk, doing some drawing in my sketch book to past the time. I needed something to keep me distracted instead of making a hole in the floor. All of my frustration and anger was being powered through my arm and into the pencil. That was the second time I had been attacked under a week and for unknown purposes, it was starting to get really annoying. I looked over at Wakana who was sleeping on the bed (don't ask me how she got in here, she has her ways) she had refused to leave me after the battle, which was usual cause if one of us got hurt we stayed with each other for a few hours. I couldn't believe how she looked so innocent when she was sleeping, I wondered to myself as I turned back to my drawing, letting my mind wonder back to day's events. We had all come to the conclusion that someone was after me, shockingly enough. After I had recovered, Naruto came to ask me a few questions about the attack; I told him everything I knew from when I had left the boys to pick up my rucksack to the last thing I heard before falling unconsciousness.

"_Did he say anything to you at all?" He inquired, waiting patiently as I processed the fight in my head. I wanted to say no, he didn't but something was troubling me as I ran the fight through my head. All I could remember were his stupid laughs and his cries for help, I'm pretty sure he didn't say anything, so why did I had the feeling I was missing something? I sighed in annoyance as I thought of the fight again and ran my fingers through my hair. I froze half way though pushing my hair. _

"_I think he said the guy did say you would be a tricky one." I repeated. I felt everyone freeze. I watched Naruto examine what I just said in his mind, attempting to read his mind was impossible, since he face was completely unreadable._

"_Sasuke, Kakashi, Tenten, Neji, meet me in my office in one hour everyone else go home." He ordered, instantly everyone one got up to leave._

It had almost been two hours since then. Hinata popped in earlier to say she was going to fetch Hamako and Jiraiya from school and would be back soon. I looked over at Wakana again who had just turned to a funny position on her back with her tongue looping out. I had to stiffen a laugh at the scene. I turned back to drawing my picture when a knock came from the door. Wakana was instantly on her feet with a low growl coming from her mouth.

"Come in." I yelled, as I hushed Wakana and tossed my stretch book back into my bag. The door opened and Minato stepped into the room.

"Why is it that I always have to find you but you never seemed to want to find me?" He smiled. When Wakana saw it was Minato that had entered the room, she settled back down and went back to sleep. The only reason why she liked Minato now was because he helped me sneak some food from the kitchen earlier and gave her a piece of streak.

"Maybe I'm just too lazy to find you." I shrugged as Minato surveyed my room. "What are you doing?" I asked, making Minato snap his head back to me.

"Have you done anything to make this room more... yours in anyway?" He questioned, still inspecting my room.

"No." I stretched, wondering why he was asking such a strange question, but then again it had been a very strange day.

"Why?"He inquired, leaning against the desk now with his arms folded.

"I don't know, I just haven't" I answered, getting a bit annoyed now with his weird questions. "Beside, even if I wanted to make this room more mine, I wouldn't know how." I argued, rubbing my temples on my head to try and calm myself down again.

"Well, unpacking your stuff would be one thing." He laughed, nodding to my unpacked bag lying at the bottom of the bed. I guess that would be a start, I thought, taking in what Minato was trying to point out. "Maybe we could paint it or something." Minato suggested, pulling a kunai from his pouch and started flipping it through the air.

"Whoa! Time out!" I cried out, after Minato made a remark about painting the room. "This is _your family guest room;_ I can't just start painting the room." Rubbing the temples on my head again and was trying to remember to breathe deeply, so I would stay calm. This has been a very stressful day, maybe I could try mediating.

"Correction, it's _your_ room now." Minato stated, balancing the kunai on his index finger. I was about to argue you back when someone else knocked on the door. Wakana was on her feet again, growling. I hushed Wakana again before getting up and opening the door. Naruto was outside.

"I need to see you and Minato in my office right away, have you seen him." Naruto asked. I opened the door a bit more so he could see Minato flipping a kunai in the air. Who had just realised his father presence. Naruto indicated to Minato with his finger and walked out of the room. Minato and I exchanged a quick glance with each other before following Naruto out into the hallway.


	21. A helpful pain in the butt

Well that was just delightful. Not only is someone out to get me but now I had to be babysitter twenty-fours a day. Naruto had called us to his office to discuss the situation, he had decided that it was too dangerous for me to wondering off alone, so he had arrange Kakashi, Neji, Sasuke and himself as my body guards and I would change house every week so it was hard for whoever wanted me to track me. I did not like this idea at all and had to bite the inside of my mouth, until it bleed to stop my yelling and stomping around in fury. I was going to feel like a divorced couple's child being pasted back and forth, so basically I had to stay at one of their houses for one week. I would finish off this week at Naruto and move to Sasuke next week, great, so much for doing my room up. This wasn't going to end until they caught the guy that was after me and that could take years. Oh well, at least it's with people I like, well, most of them. I had a feeling I was going to die when I went Sasuke home, I was pretty sure Sasuke and Sayrui were going to try and make my life a living hell. When Naruto asked me if I was ok with this decision, it took every fibre in my body to make sure I didn't go on a rampage around the room. Instead I agreed, though I think everyone could tell I was lying because I was sure Minato and Neji took a step away from me. I think I also scared Hamako and Jiraiya off a bit at dinner, since they tried to move away from me in the politest way possible, heck I even scared Wakana off and that's not easy to do. Now I was just laying on me bed, waiting for sleep to come. However, sleep refused to come because I was feeling guilty about my behaviour towards everyone. I really need to take some anger management classes. Sighing to myself, I kicked the covers off my bed, grabbing my sketch book and walked over to the desk. I always found drawing was a good way to release my emotions. After a few hours of drawing I had nearly finished my picture when I fell asleep.

The door creaked open and Naruto and Hinata poked their heads through too check on Nariko, they were a bit confused to see her slumped over the desk fast asleep. They exchanged a quick smile with each other before entering the room. Carefully, Naruto picked Nariko up into his arms and carried her over to the bed, placing her carefully on the soft mattress. Hinata crept over and pulled the blankets over Nariko.

"I wonder why she fell asleep at the desk." Hinata heard Naruto whispered, as she tucked the covers tightly around Nariko. She handed Naruto the book she had found on the desk.

"Maybe because she was up drawing in this." She mouthed back. Naruto began flipping through the sketch; he smile grew even bigger, when he saw page after page of magnificent sketches. "She's good isn't she?" Hinata quoted, watching Naruto close the book and handing it back to her.

"She defiantly gets it from her father." Naruto remarked, as Hinata placed the sketch book back onto the table. They both took once last look at Nariko before exiting the room so they could go to bed.

Why do I have this warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach? Better yet how the hell did I get into my bed? This sudden realisation made me bolt up. I looked around to find I was still in the same room I had fallen asleep in but not in the same place. Strange, I was sure I had falling asleep at the desk. Shrugging the strange feeling off my shoulders I grabbed my bag and walked into the bathroom to get changed. I dressed into my usual black three-quarter length trousers, a grey vest and tied my hair into a high ponytail. What time was it anyway? I thought, as I walked back into the room and picked up the clock to check the time, it was just coming up for six o'clock. What is it with me and getting up early these days? I wondered as I threw my bag at the bottom of the bed, so much for unpacking I thought as I stared at the contents of my bag and the room. What am I going to do for another two hours? Maybe I should do some meditation; I have nothing better to do. Sitting back on to the bed, I cross my legs, straightening my back and let my mind wonder. Taking deep slow breaths I started releasing my senses, I was surprised to find the Hokage tower so alive in the morning. There were lots of jonin getting cups of coffee and sitting down to right up reports, people just sitting around talking and there was even a couple making out in the loo's, eeewwww. That was something I didn't need to know. A spark of people's chakras caught my attention in the Hokage office. I focused my senses a little harder to see Naruto was briefing a group of ANBU for a mission. Cool, I wonder what mission they're being sent on, I should really come up with some jutsu to hear through walls. Hey that's not a bad idea. When the ANBU team left I decided to pay Naruto a visit.

"Come in." Naruto yelled after I knocked on the door. I walked into the room, the room seemed different in some way, even though it was exactly the same, maybe it had something to do with the pile of files looking bigger than the other day on Naruto desk. "Nariko!" Naruto spoke in surprised, as he noticed me enter the room. "What are you doing here, especially this early in the morning?"

"No reason." I answered, taking one of the chairs in front of the Hokage table and sitting down. "Just couldn't sleep and thought I'll come and annoy you." I smiled as Naruto let out a small laugh.

"I afraid I have no time for silliness's. I was planning to get all this down before breakfast, before I start my bodyguard duties." He shrugged, as he returned to the file he had been writing. A sudden wave of guilt came over me as I realised I was the one that made Naruto get up this early.

"Maybe I could help you?" I asked suddenly, Naruto looked up with a weird expression on his face. "If I help you, you can be body guarding and finishing off your work at the same time." I explained, watching Naruto carefully as my words were being processed through his head.

"Are you serious?" He questioned. I nodded, if I was going to be a pain in the butt, I might as well be a helpful pain in the butt. Naruto took my offer into consideration.

"Ok then?" Naruto answered, pushing his messy, spiky blonde hair back and picking up the smallest pile of file and placed them at the corner of the desk, were I could easily reach it, then he picked up a slightly bigger pile and handed it to me. "This is a pile of D-ranked missions." He stated pointing at the pile on the table "and that's a file of all the genin teams. I wanted you to read through the mission files and decided which team would be best the mission. Do you think you can do that?" He asked, I shook my head and watched him, as he sat back down and began finishing off his report. I grabbed the pile of folders next to me and began reading them. As I read through I found out D-ranked missions were more like chores people were too lazy to do. It was quite simple to put missions with teams. In causes like someone's lost their cat, I would pick the team that had the most experience finding lost pets or had a good tracker in the team. About half an hour later, I was finishing off the last file, when there was another knock at the door.

"Come in." Naruto shouted, not taking his eyes off the file he was writing. The door creaked open and Minato walked into the room.

"Hey dad, I just came to see..." Minato stopped what he was saying when he notice I was in the room (I must have been quite a sight because I had nicked the other chair and was resting my feet on it, plus I had let my hair down cause it was giving me a headache, so it was draping itself all over the back chair.) his mouth fell open in shock. "Do my eyes deceive me or is Nariko actually awake at six thirty in the morning." He said, his face still in shock. I rolled my eyes at Minato childish behaviour before returning back to the file.

"Nariko has been kind enough to come and help me with my paper work." Naruto stated, now looking up at Minato. "I hope you've come to help us as well Minato." Naruto smiled.

"Of course dad, why else would I be here at six-thirty in the morning?" Minato said sarcastically, Naruto nudged some of the files over to the edge of the desk and indicated to them, letting Minato know he could take those files. I put my feet down so Minato could have a chair to sit on and get on with his work.

"I'm done with my files Naruto." I exclaimed, putting the last file on top of pile. Naruto and Minato before looked at me and then to the pile on the floor.

"Can you past me the top three files." Naruto asked, holding out his hand. I picked three files off the top and handing them to him. He had a quick flip through the files, nodding his head in approval every time he finished looking through them. "Very Good" He congratulated, passing the files back to me, so I could put them back on the pile. "You can help Minato with the C-ranked files now." He turned quickly to Minato "Tells her what she needs to do." He ordered, turning back to his files again. The C-ranked missions were more ninja work but were still very simple missions; I was looking at one of the files of a Chunin team that might fit one of the missions, when I caught Minato staring at me over his file.

"What?" I questioned, bringing the file down from my face.

"Nothing" Minato admitted, placing his file back on his lap and running his fingers through his fall head of hair. "Just wondering why you always were dull colours like black, white and grey. That's all" I rolled my eyes at the silly question, honestly, why would Minato want to know something like that?

"Really because I was wondering why you always wear orange?" I inquired; hearing Naruto release a quiet laugh from his desk but when I looked his face was straight and was focus on his file.

"Ah, tu quoque." Minato answered, a small smile spreading across his handsome face. Shaking my head of silly thoughts and returned back to the file I was working on, it wasn't hard to finish off this pile either, we were finishing off on the last file when Hinata came in to announce breakfast.

"Pancakes everyone." Hinata called before shutting the door again, at that moment everyone's stomach in the room release a mighty grumble. I guess we were all hungry, I thought, as Naruto announced it was time for a break. Yum pancakes, I wondered, as we walked down the hallway, Naruto and Minato were discussing some new training method for Jiraiya. I was too busy thinking of delicious pancakes to really take notice. A sudden jab of pain in my head, made me shriek out in pain and surprised as I clutched my head and stumbled backwards, my head felt so heavy and everything seemed to be spinning, I fell, bracing myself to slam against the floor but something caught me just in time. I could see two blurry figures over me, one of them was carrying we as he shouted something at the other person, that's when my vision went into complete darkness.


	22. Family

_Mum had the most beautiful voice. She would always sing me a lullaby every night, until I fell asleep. One night, mum was singing me lullaby when Wakana suddenly got up and started growling. Mum was immediately on her feet, kunai out and ready. A dark mist surrounds us. I held onto Wakana as tightly as I could. My mother is now crouched, so I am blocked from any attack, but that does not stop me peeping around her and seeing a horrifying face forming from the mist, glowing red eyes, send a shock wave through my soul, I screamed in pain when I felt my head was about to blow up. _

My eyes flashed open. Everything was white. Please don't tell me I'm in the hospital again, I thought, as I forced myself up into a sitting position. I looked down to see I was still in my clothes instead of the hospital pyjamas I had on last time. I ripped of the wires and got up to see where everyone was. But before I could go on my search Tsunade and Minato walked into the room.

"Nariko!" They both shouted at the same time, they must be surprised to see me up and about so quickly. "You should be resting." They both said again, staring at each other for a second but their focus quickly turned back to me. Why do I get the feeling I'm in really big trouble? I thought, as Tsunade was wearing the most serious face that I've ever seen.

"Sit down Nariko. We need to talk to you." Naruto order. I immediately sit back on the bed, while the both surrounded me. I guess they don't want to me make a run for it, I silently giggled to myself, only to have it taken back later because Tsunade face twisted in annoyance. Am I that easy to read?

"These headaches you've been having are getting out of control." Tsunade stated, folding her arms under her huge breast (what can I say they are huge) to show that she was serious. "I need you to explain when they started and the time skips between them." I nodded in understanding. When did they all start? I wondered, thinking through all the times I had these things. I've had these headaches so many times I can't remember when I had my first one. Suddenly the memory popped back into my head.

"It all started when I got a visit from the boggy man." I answered my mind in deep thought. Both Naruto and Tsunade exchanged a weird look with each other and then back at me with a deep look of confusion on their face. I guess I'm going to have to explain my story even further, I thought. "I was four, I and mum had been walking all day, for some reason she was in more of a rush than usual, I didn't say anything because I could feel the fear rolling off her body. I didn't even know why she was scared?" I paused, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself; I felt Tsunade warm hands on my hand and Naruto firm grip on my shoulder, giving me strength to continue my story. "It was near midnight when mum finally realised that I was walking on sheer will-power, my brand new shoes had holes in them and my feet were bleeding pretty badly, so mum picked me up and carried me to a cave nearby and healed my feet. Even though I was tired I still couldn't sleep because I was too scared, so mum summon Wakana for me to cuddle and she started singing me a lullaby. I was nearly asleep when Wakana started growling and mum was up on her feet. She threw herself in front of me in a defensive position and grabbed a kunai when this thick black mist filled the cave. I grabbed on to Wakana as tightly as I could but I wasn't scared, I just didn't want Wakana to run off and start attacking it. I was more curious then scared so out of better judgement, I peeked around her and I saw bloody red eyes staring back at me, it sent some kind of shock wave down my spine and then this pain erupted in my head. I screamed and that's when I passed out." I finished, my body had shut off, I didn't even hear what Tsunade was saying to me, even when she was shouting and then Naruto yelled in a firm voice to calm down. "Can I go to sleep please, I'm kind of tired." I stated, making Tsunade stop calling Naruto a dumb kid and turned to me.

"Of course." Tsunade replied, moving her head at Naruto to show it was time to leave. Naruto gave me a quick smile and followed Tsunade out of the room. I lay my head on my pillow and turned towards the window, silently crying into the pillow until I fell asleep.

When I woke up again, I found I wasn't alone; Kakashi was sitting in one of the chairs next to the bed reading his porn but put he back in his pocket, as soon as he realised that I was awake,

"How do you feel?" He asked, leaning forward. His grey hair looked messier than usual, I don't know what it was but something seemed to be annoying me about it, like when you get that feeling when you see something right in front of you and can there's something you can't but your finger on. His hair's not grey! I thought suddenly as the sun's light appeared quickly and shone on his head, its sliver. What a strange hair colour? Then again he is a strange man.

"Depressed." I answered, my voice sounded quite dead, I reached over to the jug of water and the cup that was on the bedside table but Kakashi was quicker and started pouring me a glass of water. I mumbled my thanks when he handed it to me and took a big gulp. "So what are you doing here anyway?" I asked, stunning Kakashi with my sudden question.

"Well I came to talk to Tsunade about a pain in my back but she was too busy and asked me to keep an eye on you instead." He answered, sitting back down in his chair. I nodded in reply and started fiddling with a bit of my hair. What an utter load of bullshit? That's one of the worst lies I've ever heard and I know I'm the queen of bad liars. I wish mum was here, she would know what to do, she always knew what to do. She even knew what to do when she was lying and I could tell but didn't want to say anything because I knew it was a touchy subject to her.

"What you thinking about?" Kakashi suddenly asked.

"How did you know I was thinking?" I inquired, twirling the strand of pink hair around my index finger, watching it unravel.

"I used to have a friend that twirls her hair around her finger when she was thinking." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair and folded his arm against his chest. I took Kakashi earlier question into consideration before replying.

"Just thinking." I answered, as I started playing with my hair again.

"Anything you want to talk about." He asked, was it just me or was that a note of concern I heard in his voice.

"You promise not to laugh." I questioned, giving Kakashi a serious stare. He responded by putting his hand over his heart and put his other hand over his mouth, to show he would not laugh. Sighing to myself as I thought I must be crazy. "I was thinking about mums' family." I could see Kakashi's face turn into shock when I said it.

"I thought you said you didn't know anything about your mums' family." He questioned, his face turning back to seriousness.

"And I don't." I snapped back quickly, calming myself down again. "I was just wondering what they might of been like." Oh great, I was getting myself all worked up, I huffed to myself. "I bet they were nice." I suddenly spoke. Placing my head on my hand, as my mind went into a day-dream like state. Pictures began to form in my head as I began making up family members in it. She defiantly would of had a big family, a lot of sisters and a lot of brother, heck she may of been married. At that last remark I shook my head, trying to get rid of that image in my head. No if she was married then I would know of him, right. I mean she wouldn't of kept my own father away from me.

**Maybe your dad was an asshole.**

What are you doing here?

**Well. I haven't talk to you in a while, so I thought I would pay a visit.**

Oh great.

**Hey! I'm only trying to be friendly.**

Since when have you ever been friendly?

**Since now.**

Are you having a metal break or something?

**Yes! I am so bored!**

Well, find some way to entertain yourself.

**Fine. I'll just daydream about Minato yummy butt.**

Don't think about that.

**Why? **

Because if you start thinking about it then I'll start thinking about it.

**Oh come on. Let me have a bit of fun**

No.

**:P**

Did you just mentally stick your tongue out at me?

**Maybe. Hehehehe.**

Oh yeah, very mature of you.

**Well, if you're just going to insult me I'm going to leave.**

Fine.

**I'll go then**.

Good.

**I will. **

Well, leave then!

Oh Kami I'm crazy, I thought, groaning to myself and rubbing my forehead. Just then there was a knock on the door, it was silent for a few moments, until the door suddenly flew open and Hamako ran in smiling.

"See! I told you she was alive Minato." She yelled and stuck her tongue out when Minato entered the room.

"I never said she was dead." Minato yelled back, he was quickly followed by Jiraiya, Nene, Itachi, along with Itachi twin brothers Toshiro and Jun and also Umiko. I guess they came here straight from school, I wondered. Wait, that means I've been sleeping for most of the day, I'm defiantly going to have trouble sleeping tonight.

"How is everyone?" I asked, scooping Hamako up into my arms and placed her beside me on the bed.

"I think we're supposed to ask you that question." Minato remarked, his goofy smile spreading across his face, a small laugh escape my lips, as I began playing with Hamako hair. Everyone took a seat or sat on the bed and began telling me what they had been doing today. I heard Kakashi let out a small laugh and returned to his Icha Icha Paradise. Honestly, porn in front of little children, I sighed and returned back to what Hamako was saying.

"Mummy has a big feast prepared for you when you get home." Hamako cried.

"Why is your mum preparing a big feast?" I questioned, shocked by Hamako statement. Hamako gave me a funny look that almost made me laugh but didn't because I knew she would kick my ass after would's, even if she was only five years old.

"She wanted to give you something special before you left tomorrow." She replied. I think I'm falling in love with Minato mum cause I love it when people cook me food. I wonder what we'll be having, I dreamed to myself. I suddenly felt guilty when I realised the trouble Hinata was going through to make me a special meal.

"That's sweet but Hinata shouldn't go through all that trouble just for me." I answered, as I finished doing Hamako hair into a French plait. "Now I just feel like in taking advantage of her amazing cooking skills."

"Trust me she doing you a favour." Itachi interrupted. "I mean I love my mom and the woman has many good qualities about her but she does not know how to cook." He added, as he messed Toshiro hair up. "Don't you agree guys?"

"I'm sure her cooking's not that bad." I injected, moving a little so Umiko could sit next to me and started doing her hair into a French plait. "I mean it's better than eaten rats." I could feel I made a big mistake when I felt everyone go tense in the room, Kakashi even dropped his book. Even with his mask on you could see the shocked expression on his face.

"Cool you've eaten a rat!" Jun cried out suddenly, making everyone look at him like he was some alien that had just landed.

"What do they taste like?" Toshiro asked. I tried to remember back to that last time I cooked rat.

"It's taste a bit like chicken with a little taste of beef, only it smells really bad." I answered.

"Cool!" Toshiro and Jun both shouted, giving each other high fives, while everyone else's faces turned greener and greener by the second. I couldn't help but laugh at the scene in front of me and rolled back laughing. Oh man I really love these guys.


	23. The smell of revenge

Today was to be my first day staying with the Uchiha family, it was five o'clock in the morning, we were suppose to meet them at four thirty but I was too lazy to get up. It wasn't until Naruto chucked a bucket of icy cold water over me, so now I and Naruto were jumping along the shadows of the rooftops with our clocks wrapped around our bodies and our hoods were pulled far over our faces. The sun was starting to rise above the horizon.

"It's just ahead." Naruto called out suddenly, I focus on the row of buildings in front of us. The buildings were all tall and white; each had the Uchiha symbol painted on them. Wow, Minato wasn't kidding when he said the Uchiha compound was huge. As we got closer I could see three dark figures standing on top of the tallest building. One of them I recognise was Itachi; I knew he would be there because he told me last Saturday at the hospital, next was Sasuke standing tall in the middle and looking grumpy as ever and then it was his wife, Ino was standing next to him, wrapped in a blue cloak, which I was quite envies of.

"Good morning everyone." Naruto smiled. Sasuke only nodded a reply but Ino and Itachi were kind enough to show a smile.

"Hello Naruto, hello Nariko, I hope your journey was no trouble." Ino asked politely. Sasuke just grunted as a reply. Ino shot him a quick look of annoyance before she returned back to us with her friendly look. Naruto let out a little snigger; he was such a kid some times.

"We would have been here a lot sooner but someone couldn't be bothered to get out of bed." Naruto laughed again, placing his hands on my shoulder and gave me a wink. I turned to see Itachi was trying to muffle a laugh with his hand over his mouth.

"Yeah Naruto, I told you to get up early otherwise we would be late." I answered, shaking my head at Naruto in disapproval; his mouth fell open in shock but quickly snapped back into a smile and gave me a quick nudged back. Itachi started to burst out laughing, even Ino let out a little smile. However, Sasuke was not amused and shot Itachi an angry glare. Itachi stopped laughing instantly and stepped back in composer but there was still a sly smile was spread across his face. Naruto, Ino and Sasuke went off a little distance to talk privately, leaving me alone with Itachi.

"I don't care what you say about your dad being shy, he hates me." I stated quietly as we both watched the adults talking with each other.

"I don't think that's the problem." Itachi replied, before I could ask what he meant he turned me around, so our backs were against the adults. "I overheard my mum and dad arguing last night." He began, quickly looking over his shoulder to see that the adults were still talking. "Apparently there was a death in the family." My blood froze at this new piece of new information, so that's why he was so grumpy. I was the same when mum died. Why didn't I notice before?

"Oh Itachi, I'm so sorry." I whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder but Itachi started shaking his head viciously.

"Thing is I know everyone in this family and I know no has died." Confession clouded my mind, seeing this; Itachi began to explain in further detail. "I didn't hear all of the argument but from what I could tell, we have another auntie somewhere or did; now she's dead. Mum's been trying to snap dad out of depression for over a week now, though we can tell she's depressed to." Itachi face was very sad when he looked back over his shoulder to check on the adults.

"Why do you think they kept her away from you all these years?" I inquired, as I became more and more interested to know who this strange family member that Sasuke seemed to be keen on keeping away from his family.

"I don't know. But I'm sure as hell going to find out." He stopped, turning back around. I also span around to see the adults walking back to us.

"Goodbye Nariko." Naruto whispered as we both embraced each other. "I'll see you around." He smiled, giving me one last wave before heading off. I gave a small wave back before turning back to the Uchiha family and followed them inside.

I was sitting in my adoptive room. I had nothing else to do and for some reason I wasn't tired, so instead I just sat and did some mediation and drawing for a few hours. I didn't realise that it was eight o'clock, until Fumito knocked on the door.

"Miss Haruno, breakfast is served." He yelled through the door. Fumito was the family's butler, can you believe it, they actually had a butler. I mean I knew they were rich but not that rich to have a butler, plus I think there was a maid somewhere to. Flipping my sketch book shut, I rolled of the bed and quickly freshen myself up before I left for the dining room. I thought the Uzumaki family had a big table but this was just ridicules. The Uchiha dining room was gigantic, it was double the length and double the width of the table and let's not forget the Uzumaki table is huge.

**What is it with these people and big tables?**

Whose knows?

**I wonder if it has something to do with the extra logness?**

Logness! Is that even a word?

**No. I just thought I would be creative. **

You crazy cow.

**Go and eat your breakfast you greedy pig.**

Ah, tu quoque.

"Nariko! Nariko! Come and sit next to us." Jun and Toshiro both shouted patting the chair that was between them. Everyone was already sitting around the table, Ino was helping Umiko pour her cereal, Itachi was flickering things at Sayrui Uchiha and Sasuke was sitting at the head of the table reading a news paper. Even though I couldn't see his face I bet 50 yen that he had a scowl behind it. I sat down between Jun and Toshiro, who were debating who had a better kunai throwing ability.

"I'm the better one. I hit the target every single time." Jun argued a smug look spread across his face, making Toshiro look angrier.

"I hit it every time too." He moaned.

"Yes but do you hit the bull's-eye every time." Jun smirked. Toshiro face fell at that moment, while Jun's turned into one of triumph. The twins continue to argue, until Ino finally snapped and threaten to take away their kunai pouches for a week. Jun and Toshiro stopped instantly when they heard this threat but started the argument again in a quieter tones. I wasn't really bothered since I was used to being stuck in the middle of an argument now, I was playing with my spoon (for some reason I wasn't really hunger) and was flipping it in the ait, doing little tricks and stuff with it, when I notice Jun and Toshiro staring at me.

"What?" I asked, catching the spoon back into my hand and placed it back on the table.

"That was totally awesome." Jun cried out, making everyone turn to face our direction. I was just sitting there, totally confused.

"What is?" I questioned, completing confused on what was going on, it's not like I did anything special. I was just playing with the spoon.

"Those tricks you were doing with the spoon." Toshiro explained, trying to re-enact my display of spoon tricks, it didn't go so well because when he attempted to do one of the tricks it went flying in the other direction and hit Sayrui right in the for-head.

"Ouch!" She yelled, rubbing her forehead. When she removes her hand there was a red mark where the spoon hit her, like I wasn't in trouble with her already now I'm going to get my butt kicked.

I going to die any second, I thought, as I dragged my feet towards my bedroom. It was now Wednesday, three days of the Uchiha family. I can't believe I agreed to this, I screamed to myself, thinking back to how I got myself into this mess.

_Me and the twins could do nothing but just sit there in pure horror as Sayrui went on a rampage _ _around the dining room and only stopped when Sasuke did a loud cough. _

"_Sayrui, will you please take your younger brothers and Umiko to the living room. I need to talk to Nariko." I order. If I was his daughter I would of defiantly followed that command but Sayrui seemed to be too angry to notice._

"_What about Itachi?" She demanded. Her confidence quickly disappeared when Ino and Sasuke both shot her angry faces._

"_Don't be so rude too your father and do as you're told." Ino snapped, fed up with her daughter's rudeness. Sayrui nodded and quickly gathered up her sister and her brothers and pushed them out of the room. I just watched the whole scenario with a look of confusion on my face. There was a moment of silence after the children left before Sasuke spoke._

"_Nariko." He began; pausing quickly to make sure he had my attention before he continued. "There's a big benefit at the end of the week. I have to be there but I can't just leave you unprotected. To solve both problems we've decided that you should come to the benefit with us." After he finished, my body froze. Benefits usually mine charity parties! I don't care if it's a charity benefit to save puppies; there is no way I am going to agree to this. Nevertheless, the tone in Sasuke voice didn't sound like I could get out of this. Plus I did love puppies._

"_Yeah! It sounds great." I answered, as I tried to put a grin on my face._

If that wasn't bad enough, it turns out the benefit was going to have a lot of snobs there or as Sasuke calls them rich folk of Konohagakure. So I had to learn how to be snob... I mean posh. I had to have lessons in dining manners, dancing and how to talk like a posh person. I was pretty sure that Sasuke was using this as a torture method on me. Who needs that many forks to eat with anyway? That is a waste of cutlery! Good cutlery I might add! Plus Sayrui was making anything easier. Don't do this, don't do that, for goodness can you get anything right blah, blah, blah. I think the only reason I made it this far was because Itachi was also helping out. I was nearly near my room now, when I suddenly heard voices coming from the twins room.

"Rose drops are better man, they stink ten times worse." I heard Jun whisper loudly through the door.

"No! Ivy leaves are better, they last longer." Toshiro shouted back to his brother. Suddenly a huge argument broke out between them. There was no way I was going to be able to get a nap if those two were to busy arguing. I loudly knocked on their door, the noise stopped instantly.

"Guys its me, can I come in." I asked. I waited by the door, waiting for one of them to answer. After a while one of the guys walked to the door an opened it and quickly pushed me in. "Hey guys, sorry to interrupt but..." I stopped when I notice the brown looking stuff on the fall, my mouth fell open in shock and then quickly close it again. "Are you guys making a stink bomb?" I inquired, looking at the ingredients scattered all over the floor.

"Pretty cool huh." Jun exclaims, picking some of the stuff off the fall. "If you're wondering why we're making it, we're going to plant it in Sayrui's room for ratting out on us yesterday." I nodded in understanding as the memory of Ino chasing the twins around the house and making them clean out the gutters, when she found out someone broke her favourite vase. I quietly laughed to myself at the memory.

"Well, I just wanted to ask if you could keep the noise down because I'm going to take a nap." I asked. Both twins nodded there heads in agreement. I sighed to myself, the twins were so cute, naughty but cute. I began to leave the room when I suddenly stopped with an idea in my head. "You know maybe you should try snow drops. They're last longer, smell a thousand times worse and the chemical in it dissolve the evidence." I suggested, looking over my shoulder to see the twins eyes glitter with admiration and mischief.

Kami, that was one of the best performances I have ever scene in my life, I giggled to myself. It was dinner time and everyone was sitting down for dinner, when a loud scream echo through the house. Sayrui came screaming into the room, choking and smelling really bad. Ino went to help her daughter, Sasuke and Itachi looked on I pure horror, while I, the twins and even little Umiko tried to hold back fits of laughter. Kami! I think I've never been so happy, I smiled. I was just about to enter my bedroom when I felt Itachi's chakra behind me.

"You are so evil." He said, as I turned to face him.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." I replied innocently, but a sly smirk grew across Itachi face.

"Oh come on. I might have been in shock but I saw you and the twins laughing." He smiled, letting at a little laugh as he remembered the events.

"Itachi I swear I had nothing to do with planting any kind of stink bomb in Sayrui room." I answered. Shock appeared over Itachi face as he could tell I was telling the truth.

"Ok then, I'll see you tomorrow at dance lessons." He winked as I let out a little groan and walked back down the hall, just before he disappeared down the hall I added.

"Though I might be the reason why Sayrui room stinks ten times worse then it should." Itachi froze where he stood. Slowly, he turned around, a sly smirk spread across over his face.

"You. Are. So. Evil." He stated slowly, laughter was shining in his eyes.

"I know and yet people don't like to see it in job applications." I shrugged; Itachi burst out laughing as he waved me good night and disappeared down the hall. I couldn't help but laugh myself as I watched Itachi disappear into the shadows of the night. A sudden chill went up my spine, making me remember that I had left my jumper in the dining room. Sighing to myself I walked back to the dining room to collect it.


	24. Dance lessons

"For goodness sake, it's like working with a two left foot elephant." Sayrui shrieked, after I tried to do a jump in the air but it went horribly wrong in the landing, since I ended up flat on my face. "I thought you were bad before but today you're just terrible." She continues to shout as she marched around me in a rampage. I just lay there, my face emotionless. Sayrui didn't seem to notice or care and continue with her ranting. "The benefit is three days away and you're not even half ..."

"Sayrui! Let's take a break" Itachi interrupted, holding his ground as he and he locked eyes with each other. I just sat on the floor watching the match go on for about five minutes, until Sayrui finally backed down.

"All right five minutes." She ordered and walked out of the room. Itachi walked over to where I was laying and offered his hand. I ignored it and got up myself, dusting my trousers off and stomped over to where my bottle of water was. Throwing myself on the fall, I took a deep sip of water and rested my head on my knees.

_I was walking back to my room. At least was trying to, I accidently went down the wrong hallway and had to retrace my steps. Twice! When I turned down the next corridor I could see one of the doors was slightly open and light was peeping out of it._

"_It was a crazy idea to invite her to the benefit." Sasuke voice echoed through the hallway, making my feet freeze to the floor._

"_Why? Itachi tells me she's doing well in her studies. What makes you think inviting her was a bad idea?" Ino shouted back. I blood had turn to ice. Why couldn't someone else walk into a conversation about me for once instead of me? _

"_She's been living out of society for all of her life. There's no way she can fit in." Sasuke replied calmly. I stab of pain hit me in the stomach, so that's why he didn't like me, I thought; typical snobs like behaviour. However, Ino wasn't going to give in that easily. _

"_For goodness sake. Why are you acting like this? What would Sa..." _

"_Don't you dare use her name against me?" Sasuke suddenly burst out. There was a lot of anger in his voice too. I thought I was going to be sick and ran away as fast as I could._

"Nariko, Yo Nariko! I'm talking to you." Itachi voice shouted through my thoughts.

"What?" I snapped back angrily, seeing Itachi flitch back a bit in surprise. I felt a little guilty for snapping at Itachi for something that wasn't his fault but I was too angry to listen to it.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Itachi demanded, after he snapped out of his shocked state.

"Probably upset that she can't dance." Sayrui smirked, walking back into the room with a cool bottle of water in her hand and was dabbing a towel around her forehead. Suddenly, something inside me snapped.

"That's it." I shrieked, flying to my feet faster than you could shout 'Fire' "I've had enough of this!" I swear steam must been coming out of my ears or something because Itachi and Sayrui seemed to take a couple of steps back. "I'm sorry I wasn't born into the stupid rich life like you people I but I don't give a shit about your freaking table manners and dance moves because sadly, I was born under a fucking unlucky star that has made me lose my mother and made me look over my shoulder for most... no all of my life . Well guess what? That's tough shit." Pausing for a few moments, so I could catch my breath. I turned to Sayrui who was going pale from shock. "I'm sorry I was born with two left feet , I'm sorry I was born with the grace of an elephant but I'm trying, this is probably the second time I've tried doing flipping dancing and the last because I'm fed up with this crap I've had to take from you and your father, so I'm not doing this bullshit! I QUIT!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Out of anger I threw my bottle of water at the wall, making water splash everywhere. With Itachi and Sayrui still staring in shock, I marched out of the room, slamming the door as hard as I could behind me. I ran as quickly as I could to my room and flung myself on the bed, it was only when I started to calm myself down I realised I had been crying. Quickly, I began wiping the tears away and buried my head as deeply as I could into the pillows. I could of taken ballet lessons but no I had to play football with the boys instead or practice throwing a kunai, I shouted at myself, as I punched one of the pillows with all the force I could muster (without using chakra) and continue to pound it, until it burst open and feathers flew into the air. Oops, I thought, staring at the destruction I had created. That was not meant to happen. I still had a bit of anger in me but decided to use it in a more productive way. I grabbed the dust pan and brush from inside one of the cupboards and began dusting the feathers off the floor. I had just begun when a knock came from the door. "Go away Itachi." I yelled, when I felt Itachi chakra signed through the door. Nevertheless, the door creaked open and Itachi walked into the room.

"What the hell happen in here?" He asked when he saw the feathers all over the floor.

"Pillow fight." I answered, as I continued to sweep up the feathers. Itachi didn't say anything, as I cleaned up the feathers on the floor. Instead he walked over to the chair and sat down on it. It wasn't until I put the dust pan and brush away that he decided to build up the courage to talk to me.

"So you want to talk about it." He asked, leaning into the sofa to make him more comfortable. I slammed the cupboard door as hard as I could.

"I was fed up with Sayrui criticism, that's all." I answered, taking the seat opposite Itachi.

"Really because it sounded more like you were angry at yourself then Sayrui." He replied. He kind of reminded me of a parent confronting their kid about teenager issues. Neither said anything, we just sat in silence. Itachi was staring me down while I played with my hair. "Come on Nariko talk to me."

"No!" I yelled firmly, staring Itachi in the eyes.

"Keeping stuff to yourself isn't good Nariko." He stated. "It can destroy a person."

"I think it's a little too late for that." I answered, turning my head to stare out of the window. Before anyone could continue the conversation Fumiko knocked on the door and enter the room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but lunch is ready." We both nodded in reply and Fumiko left the room.

"You coming to lunch then?" He asked, standing up.

"I'm not hungry." I answered, as I continued to stare out of the window. Itachi waited a little before letting out a sigh and disappeared through the door.

I didn't mean to fall asleep on the couch but that's what happens when you use up all your energy in an angry rampage. I probably would stay asleep if someone didn't shake me awake.

"What is it?" I yawned, rubbing my eyes and pushing myself up into a sitting position.

"Put this blind fold on." I blinked back in surprised as Itachi threw me a piece of black cloth.

"Excuse me." I asked, dangling the cloth in front of my eyes to check if my eyesight was ok because I was really confused.

"I have a surprise for you." Itachi answered with a sly grin across his face. I should have a bad feeling about this but I don't; strange. I began to play with the cloth a bit just to make sure it was real. "I promise I won't push down a well or anything." Itachi added. People must think I'm crazy for doing this but I actually put the blind fold on, something in Itachi voice made me trust him. The material was thick and impossible, so when I tried to stand up I nearly fell over again. However, before I could completely stumble over I felt Itachi catch me. "Don't worry I'll directed you to where we need to go, all you need to do is move your feet." I nodded my head in reply and let Itachi direct me out of the room. I tried to figure out where he was taking me but got lost by all of the twisting and turning. It seemed to take forever to find this destination and was about to ask where we were going when Itachi finally stopped. "Here we are." He said untying the blind fold. Light finally flashed into my eyes, I had to throw up my hands to block the light. It was then that I notice the other chakra signals around the room. Slowly I lowered my arms to see Minato, Nene and Kakashi standing around the bare room.

"Umm, does someone want to explain to me what's going on?" I asked. Everyone's face (except Itachi) turned to a look of confusion. What was going on? I wondered staring at everyone's confused faces.

"You see my little Nariko." Itachi started, making turn around to face him "Since lessons with Sayrui aren't working I decided it was time to call in some help." He indicated to everyone one in the room. "Kakashi will be your teacher today, since he pretty much taught all of us." Kakashi simply nodded at the statement. "And Minato and Nene will be helping us." Nene and Minato both smiled. I suddenly felt touch by everyone kindness.

"This is so sweet for you guys to come but let's face it, I'm an elephant born with two left feet." I shrugged.

"If you're going to have that attitude then you'll never learn how to dance." Kakashi objected, leaning off the wall he had been leaning against. "Nene and Itachi, you two pair up together. Nariko you'll be paired up with Minato." He order, clapping his hands together. I didn't really know what to do, so I just sat on the floor next to Minato, while Nene and Itachi walked into the middle of the room. Kakashi ordered me to watch what Nene and Itachi did, then I and Minato had to try and follow what they did, so he could see what I was having trouble with and how he could help me. I wanted to argue but then I thought maybe it was at least worth a chance, so I just nodded. Kakashi turned on the music and Itachi and Nene began waltzing around the room. My mouth immediately dropped open. Kami I didn't know Itachi or Nene could dance like that. They were just so graceful and elegant as they dance around the room, I am so jealous. I was really sad when they stopped and completely miserable when Kakashi announced it was my turn.

"Just remember to breath and you'll be fine." Minato whispered in my ear, sending a shiver down my spine that I was just able to suppress so it wouldn't show.

"That's easy for you to say." I whispered back. Minato just laugh and stood up, suddenly he bowed.

"Mi Lady." He said, holding out his hand. I let out a small giggle at Minato corniness and took it, so he could pull me to the dance floor.

"Let's see what you've got." Kakashi voice echo through my head as he played the music again. Everything went wrong from the first step.

"Ouch!" Minato cried as I stepped on his foot.

**You idiot. You're meant to step forward with the right foot, not the left.**

Shut up!

**No you shut up! **__

No you!

**I told you to shut up because you're meant to be focusing on the dancing.**

Oh, yeah right.

I did try, honestly I did, it's just dancing is not my thing. I kept stepping on Minato foot and missing footing, I just want to melt into a shadow and disappear for all eternity.

"Stop." Kakashi commanded. Both I and Minato stopped instantly. Oh Kami! I am so embarrassed. "Ok I think I know what we have to do."

It has been two hours now and I have not improved one bit. In fact I think I'm actually becoming worse. This can't be happening as we were performing the same dance for the hundredth time. Kakashi had given me lots of advice but no matter what I tried I just couldn't get it right. CRACK! Everyone froze when the noise echo through the room. I looked down to find my foot on top of Minato again then looked up to Minato and saw weird look on his face.

"Eeeeeerrrrrrrr, Minato. Did that sound come from your foot?" I asked, watching Minato face very carefully for any hints, praying what I just thought I did was just my imagination. My heart stopped when I saw Minato face twisted in pain. Quickly, I bent down and placed my hand on his foot, gently sending my chakra into his foot. The crack was huge. I had almost snapped Minato toes off. Working as fast as I could I began healing the bone and began reducing the swelling that was beginning to show, it didn't take me long to heal it but I still felt horrible for causing Minato pain. Nariko you idiot, I shouted at myself.

"Minato are you alright?" Kakashi voice was filled with concern. Minato seemed to snap out of his shock and began shaking his foot around to see if it's ok.

"It's fine." Minato finally replied after checking it was alright. "I can still go on." At last comment my mouth fell open.

"Are you serious!" I accidently shouted. What can I say? I'm in shock. "I just broke you toe and you're still willing to dance with me."

"I believe that's what friends are for." Minato laughed back. I could believe it. How could he just swipe it aside so easily? Like I did nothing wrong, why do I always hurt the people that I like? "Nariko please don't cry." Minato voice suddenly through my head, damn it! I screamed at myself, wiping the tears away.

"Excuse Me." I stuttered, running out of room as fast as I could and ran towards the bathroom. Ok Nariko, calm yourself down. You're getting all emotional about nothing, just get yourself back in there and dance or at least try to. I took a few deep breathes and quickly wiped the tears away from my eyes before I returned back to the dance room. "Sorry about that." I called out when I walked back into the room. "Female hormones, such a pain in the ass." I smiled, trying to brighten up the room. It didn't work since everyone had mixed emotions on their faces.

"Nariko, will you please sit down, we need to talk to you." Kakashi asked kindly, indicating to a chair to the side of the room between Nene, Minato and Itachi. Now I'm in trouble, I thought. Maybe I could run to the door before anyone has a chance to get me. However, it seemed Kakashi read my mind because I suddenly felt his chakra behind me, blocking the exit. Damn, I sighed to myself and walked over the chair and sat in it. I felt like I was in some interrogation room.

"Nariko, we need you to talk to us." Nene voiced kindly, placing one of her warm hands on my cold ones for a bit of comfort.

"About what?" I asked. I was not sure where this was going and I bet I didn't like how it was going to end up either.

"Well, let's start with the little scene with Sayrui we had today, shall we." Itachi pointed out, moving his chair a little closer to me. Kakashi just sat down on the floor, since there were no seats left. This is so not fair; I think this is against the law ganging up on people and forcing them to talk.

"Like I said before, I was getting really annoyed with Sayrui criticism." I shrugged. However, no one seemed to a) take my bullshit. b) Not back down without a fight.

"Don't give me that crap Nariko." Itachi argued "I've seen you take more crap from Sayrui, ten times worse than today." I was using every single bit of strength to hold back my anger, so I wouldn't go smacking Itachi around the head because of his begin mouth and his nosy nose. A sudden warm presence kneeling beside me caught my attention. I turned to see Minato there; smiling.

"Please Nariko." He whispered, grabbing my hand and giving it a small squeeze. Minato kind gesture set some kind of trigger off in me. I knew at that moment, I could never deny what any of them wanted. I swear I'm going soft in the head, I thought, sighing to myself.

"Fine! If you really want to know I was upset because I heard Ino and Sasuke arguing about me and saying how it was a bad idea for inviting me to the benefit because of my lifestyle. Happy." I voiced, shrugging Nene and Minato hands off me and folding my arms against my chest. I suddenly felt very lonely not having Minato hand on mine. Despite that fact I did suddenly feel a lot better, like a huge pressure had been taking off of me.

"What actually did they say?" Kakashi questioned, leaning forward like he was interested. I thought back to last night and tried to repeat everything they said.

"That doesn't sound like dad." Itachi objected, he too had been listening to what I had overheard last night. I just shrugged. What could I do? It wasn't like I could take back anything I said now.

"Despite what Sasuke said or did not say Nariko you should know that no one judges you for who you are." Kakashi injected, a smile appearing behind his mask, everyone else nodded in agreement. I felt much happier now, knowing I wasn't judge for who I was by the closets people to me. "Would you like to try dancing one last time Nariko." Kakashi asked, a little spark was glittering in his lone eye. I was about to argue and say what a silly question but then thought differently. I did feel more confident to dance now for some reason, I nodded my head in reply and let Minato pull me out of the chair and over to the dance floor. Kakashi played the music and we began to dance. I couldn't believe it. I was actually dancing. This was impossible but it was happening, I just felt so care free and graceful, it was like the happiest moment of my life. The music stopped and everyone began clapping. Finally I didn't step on Minato toe for once.

"Do you feel up to the benefit now Nariko." Kakashi asked, a sly happy grin hidden behind his mask. I smiled back cheerfully.

"You bet."


	25. The benefit

**I would just like to give a little thank you to Tsarina Torment for helping me write this chapter because all of the revision and coursework I have been doing has turned me brain dead and I have been trying to get a new chapter up for ages. Thanks again Tsarina Torment********. Also a thank you DarkAlliGator who has given me a great idea but I won't tell her what it is just because I am evil. Hehehehehe!!!!!!!!!!!! **

I must have been crazy too think I could do this, I yelled at myself, as I began pacing around the room. There's no way I would be able to fit in with all of the rich people. What if I pick up the wrong fork to eat with? What if I step on someone's toe during one of the dances? What if...

"Nariko would you please sit down you're burning a hole through the floor." Itachi cried out from the sofa. I took his advice and sat down on the chair opposite him. "Stop being so nervous, you're going to be fine." He reassured me. Nevertheless, I still felt like I was going to puck any second. "It's not like you won't know anyone there, I'll be there so stop worrying." He's right, I thought, I should calm down. Getting myself worked up is getting me nowhere.

"Anyway, what did you want to see me about?" I asked; trying to keep my mind distracted from the benefit.

"Oh yeah, mum wanted me to give you this." He answered, picking up the box beside him and handed it towards me. The box was plain with a pink ribbon on the top. Gently, I picked the lid off. Oh! I thought, looking at the material inside. Carefully, I slowly lifted the soft material out of the box to reveal a beautiful black

"Oh!" I said; out loud this time. "It's beautiful." The quality of the dress was made to perfection. Wow! It really was a beautiful dress.

"It's for the benefit tonight." Itachi added. I wanted to come up with some sarcastic come back but didn't really feel up to it and just continue staring at the dress. "I'll leave you to get ready." Without another word he got up from the chair and left.

The benefit was held at a large five star hotel, just outside the borders of the hidden leaf village. The place was magnificent, even though I could only see a bit of it because I was waiting behind the Uchiha's in a dark hallway, waiting to be announced, I could see the brightly lit candles, the expansive decorations and the colourful fabrics of the people, dancing around the room.

"Announcing Lord and Lady Uchiha and their children Itachi, Sayuri, Jun, Toshiro, Umiko Uchiha and their guest Nariko Haruno!" The announcer cried out, taking a deep breath, I followed the Uchiha's into the spotlight where everyone could see me. I could hear people whispering.

"Haruno! Did I hear that right? Did he really say Haruno?" or "Is that her? The pinked hair one, is that the Haruno?" Wow! I must be a celebrity or something! Wait a second, why am I suddenly a celebrity?

**Maybe you've got yourself a reputation for staying with Minato? They must think you're his girlfriend.**

Yeah right! There's NO WAY they think that!

**Why Not?**

Because they wouldn't!

**Ok, ok, jeez. Keep your head on!**

I was near the bottom of the stairs when my foot slipped. I would have fallen on to my face but some caught me before I could make a scene. I looked over to see who had caught me from one hell of an embarrassing scene, but couldn't see them. Strange! I thought. Searching the crowd one last time before I quickly followed the Uchiha's. I tried to ignore the stares but they burned on the back of my head. It took every single announce of self control in my body to stop turning around and having a go at them for being so rude. In the end I didn't say anything and felt very proud of myself. I only had to survive another two hours, forty-three minutes and eleven seconds. Man I was desperate to get out of here. If I was lucky and Umiko got really tired we could leave early. Kami! Why didn't I bring a sleepy potion to drug Umiko with? I sighed to myself, as we sat down at our table. After a waiter came around and served us drinks, our attention was called to an old short man standing on top of a podium. He gave a very long boring about raising money for children's hospice and homes. It was sweet of him to care, so much but just really boring. When he finally finished he climbed down from his podium everyone gave a polite clap before walking onto the dance floor again. The twins made up some excuse to leave the table and quickly left, Sasuke and Ino also got up to speak to some friends, she tried to drag Umiko along but Umiko refused to move, saying something like 'daddies friends are boring' it wasn't until I offered to stay with her that Ino considered it.

"Don't you want to get up and dance?" She asked kindly.

"I don't mind looking after Umiko." I answered. Even though I had turned into a pretty good dancer, I was still not very confident about dancing with other people.

"Ok then, take care." Ino called out, as Sasuke dragged her through the crowd. I did a silent cheer because that meant I had an excuse not to dance. Sayrui disappeared into a large group of admires while Itachi just stayed next to me and we both chatted with each other. I tried to convince Itachi to go out onto the dance (since he was a really good dancer and I hate to see talent wasted) but he only looked at me in shock horror.

"Are you kidding, as soon as I get up from this table I'll be swarmed by single woman wanting a dance?" He cried out, pointing to a large group of young giggling girls, fluttering their eyes and smiling at Itachi. He quickly turned away; a shudder went down his back.

"What will you do if one of them comes over for a dance?" I asked, wiping away the chocolate that had somehow appeared on Umiko face.

"Simple, I'll just say you're my date." He stated. I froze, dropping the napkin I had been using.

"I'm your what?" I nearly shrieked but managed to control myself at the last second.

"Don't worry. You're not really my date, we'll just pretend if one of the girls comes over to ask." He smiled. Oh great! Rolling my eyes as I continued to swipe Umiko face with a clean cloth I picked off the table. We sat there for a while, enjoying each other's company and playing games with Umiko, so she wouldn't get bored or feel left out. However, it didn't take long for our happiness to turn sour. I was refereeing a game of rock, paper, scissors between Itachi and Umiko, when someone whispered in my ear.

"You look sexy in that black dress." I let out a little yelp and jumped up from my seat. I turned around to find Daitaro standing there, wearing a black tuxedo which made his handsomely dark features stand out more.

"What are you doing here Daitaro?" An angry Itachi said, suddenly standing right beside me. I felt Umiko small hand wrap around mine, looking down I could see her half hidden in my dress and half peeking out. Instead of being offended Daitaro only laughed.

"I only came over to ask if the young lady wanted a dance." He smirked. A shiver went down my back as I didn't like the way Daitaro eyes looked up and down my body, a spark of lust shown in his eyes. Itachi seemed to notice this as well as he moved a little bit closer to me. Why did I have to have a dress that showed off my figure? I sighed to myself.

"Thanks but no thanks." I answered discreetly, trying to make Itachi sit back down. However, I didn't miss the flash of anger that appeared on Daitora face but then disappeared faster then it came. His attention quickly caught on to Umiko half hidden in my dress.

"Hey cutie, that's a pretty dress you wearing." I could feel the atmosphere suddenly change, as he said it I flung my arm out just in time to stop Itachi charging at Daitora while pushing Umiko protectively behind me.

"Chill Itachi, I was only trying to be nice." He smirked. I had to push Itachi back even harder.

"I'm the one with the anger management problems remember!" I hissed at Itachi, keeping one of my arms around Itachi chest, while the other was holding Umiko hand for comfort.

"Look," he started, pushing back his long hair. "I was only trying to be friendly..."

"Friendly or not, your presence is not wanted." An angry voice cried out from behind us. Turning around, my mouth dropped open. Minato stood there in a white suit enhancing his golden features; he looked like some kind of angel. His dreamy blue eyes were mentally sending daggers towards Daitora. I snapped my mouth shut, after I realised it had been hanging open for far too long. Instead, I looked at Itachi whose face had an expression of complete and utter shock.

"I guess I should leave then." Daitora grunted and walked away. I let out a deep breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding. I could see Minato was still watching Daitora, until he disappeared into the crowd of people. When he turned his face to me his face instantly soften, making my heart melt.

"Dude! What the hell are you doing here?" Itachi cried out, in shock that his best friend was at the party for some reason. Minato expression turned into a goofy grin.

"Am I not allowed to spend some time with the best people I know?" He smiled. I couldn't help but smile back, for some reason I always felt happier when Minato was around.

"But you never come to a benefit when I ask you." Itachi muttered sulkily. I let out a small giggle at his childish antics. Minato laughed a little bit too, before turning back to me again.

"May I have a dance?" He asked, sweeping down into a perfect bow. I could feel my cheeks warming up and turning into a deep shade of red.

"I can't Minato. I promised Ino I would look after Umiko." I explained quickly, picking her up and placing her in one of the chairs she had been sitting in and past her a drink.

"I'm sure Itachi wouldn't mind looking after his little sister for a while." Before I could argue Minato gently took my arm and pulled me towards the dance floor. I wasn't sure if I was happy or not that it was a slow song. It was easy to follow the steps of the dance. I also liked the fact that our bodies were quite closer together, it felt so right but I couldn't help but feel like I was pushing some forbidden boundary. "You look beautiful tonight." Minato whispered as we danced around the dance floor. I blushed a little bit more at his complement, turning my face into a darker red.

"You don't look so bad yourself." I replied, trying to shake off the annoying feeling that was building up in my chest. Kami! What was going on with me?

"Thank you." He answered, spinning me around. I was so glad I had Kakashi as my dance teacher for the past couple of days; otherwise I might of broken Minato toe again. "Are you enjoying the benefit?" he asked, as he dipped me. I had to wait for the blood to rush back to my head before I could think clearly and answered the question.

"Except from the fact that I nearly tripped on the stairs and Daitora sneaking up behind me earlier and scaring me half to death, I'm having a great time." I joked, making Minato laugh more.

"Yeah, it was a good thing I caught you." He commented, making my head snap back to his face.

"That was you!" I gasped in surprise.

"Of course it was me- who else would it be?" He replied, smiling a stunningly beautiful smile that made my heart do a somersault backwards.

"Then why did you disappear?" I questioned.

"I didn't want to give people the wrong idea- they might think that we were ... together." He replied- seductively? I had this weird feeling spinning around in the pit of my stomach.

"So, what impression do you think we're giving now?" I whispered playfully into his ears. We both took this moment to look around and saw people giving us mixed looks. When Itachi appeared into my view I could see he had a silly smile on his face, shaking his head a little. Who cares what they think? I thought, focusing my attention back on to my footing. As long as I and Minato know what our relationship is, it doesn't matter what they think. I smiled as I let Minato glide me across the dance floor. I loved the way I felt comfortable in his strong arms and how our bodies were pressed close together, so close I could feel his strong heart beat.

"What are you smiling at?" I shook my head and looked back at Minato's face; he was looking down at me with an amused expression on his face.

"Nothing." I blushed. Minato raised an eyebrow, showing that he didn't believe me but didn't push it. My blush deepened as his arms tightened around me.

"Excuse me," a male voice said from behind me. I turned to see a young man about Minato age standing there, Minato glared at him possessively. "I..umm... I wanted to ask if you would do me the honour of dancing with me?" He stuttered, Minato's glare was making him nervous. I bit my bottom lip, trying to come up with some solution to get out of this. I was bound to offend somebody. But who?

"Thank you for the offer but I'm afraid we were just going to sit down now." I smiled politely, pulling Minato off the dance floor. Minato kept glaring at the poor guy until he disappeared behind the crowd of dancers. That was a bit uncalled for, I thought. I was deciding if I should have a word with him but then I decided against it, since it wasn't the time or the place. Itachi was trying to hold back uncontrollable laughter. I rolled my eyes. Men, do they ever grow up? I sighed, sitting myself down next to Umiko. For the rest of the night we all sat around the table laughing and playing games with each other. Ino came and checked on us a few times to see if we were ok (she seemed pretty shocked to find Minato with us.) The night was nearly over when Umiko let out a big yawn. Sasuke announced it was time to go home, picking Umiko up and Ino went in search for the twins and Sayrui, who was still in the middle of her group of admirers.

"Minato it late for you to return home now, would you like to stay over our house." Ino voiced politely, after she returned with a tried pair of twins and a sour looking Sayrui. It seems she didn't appreciate being dragging away from the attention.

"I would love to Auntie Ino." Minato smiled. Sayrui sour face disappeared for a second but reappeared ten times worse when Minato offered me his hand. Jeez what's her problem, I thought, as I took Minato hand and let him pull me up. I walked between Minato and Itachi as we walked out of the hall, feeling Sayrui piercing eyes on me for the whole time. The carriage was waiting outside for us (Yeah, I said it. We had a carriage.) The footman helped us step into it; it was a good thing it was a pretty large carriage otherwise none of us would be able to breath for the whole trip back to the Uchiha compound. I couldn't believe how tired I was until a big yawn escaped my mouth. I gently let my head back for a bit of rest. My brain was just drifting off to sleep when a desperate voice shouted into my head.

"_Get out!" A _chilling voice cried through the darkness.

"What?" I answered, annoyed and confused.

"_The enemy put a bomb under the carriage, you have to get out. NOW!"_ The chilling voice shrieked. My eyes flew open and I let out a loud gasp, launching my body forward in shock.

"Nariko are you ok." Three people cried out the same thing at the same time.

"We need to get out." I cried. Everyone looked at me like I was some crazy person.

"Nariko what..."

"There's a bomb under the carriage we need to get out now!" I cried grabbing Jun, and kicked the door open. Itachi was the first to recover, as he quickly picked Toshiro and grabbed Sayrui hand and jumped out of the carriage after me, who was quickly followed by Ino carrying a sleeping Umiko, then Minato and finally Sasuke. Sasuke had just barely jumped out of the carriage when fire suddenly boomed out of nowhere and engulfed the whole carriage in flame. Everyone watched in shock and horror as black smoke reached up into the dark horizon making the sky darker. Someone's groaning caught my attention, when I looked, I saw the coach driver laying on the floor, trying to pull himself away from the fire. I quickly place Jun down on the floor and ran to help him, not caring what happened to my dress, as I knelt next to him and began healing him. Thankfully, his injuries weren't as bad as I first thought and was able to put him out of his pain quickly.

"How the hell didn't you know the carriage was about to blow up?" Itachi cried out, as I was helping the carriage driver get to his feet. I looked up to see everyone giving me weird looks.

"Believe it or not, there are some benefits in being able to talk to ghosts." I answered.


	26. Strange?

Kami! My feet hurt from all that dancing last night. I whined, as I jumped from building to building next to Sasuke. I didn't actually like the fact that I had to stay next to him but he threaten to wrap a rope around me if I didn't stay close, so I didn't really have a choice. I was still trying to decide how in the world Itachi was related to such a mean man. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke came into my room and tipped a whole lot of water over my head. He didn't even try to wake me up without the bucket first. He said he did it so we wouldn't be late; obviously this man had some serious deadline issues. We were heading towards Kakashi apartment, where I would be staying for the next week. We would also meet Naruto there as well. After last night's advents Sasuke sent a message to the Hokage about the situation. The Hokage wrote back that they would meet at Kakashi place tomorrow. I was still confused over the number of reactions everyone gave me last night. I mean Itachi and Minato still acted the same around me after they overcame their shock, Sayrui just looked at me like I was some kind of freak, Sasuke grew colder towards me, Ino thanked me for saving all their lives, Jun and Toshiro just looked at me like I was some God, thinking it was the coolest thing ever to be able to talk to ghosts and Umiko, well she just slept through the whole thing. When we were near the apartment blocks I was shocked to find three chakra signals, two of them I recognise as Kakashi and Naruto but the third one was familiar but unrecognised at the same time, like a person you walked by in the street once and you see them again but you can't remember where. I was even more confused that I could only see two figures, until we got a bit a little closer and saw a small dog figure, standing on the roof top next to them. Strange? I wondered, as we reached closer and closer to the apartment building. Why would they have a small pup with them? I thought I would used to seeing weird things by now. When we actually reached it I saw it wasn't actually a puppy but a small old dog.

"I'm actually surprised to see you two arrive on time." Kakashi commented, as Naruto tried to hold back a small snigger. He was probably thinking of which method Sasuke used to get me out of bed.

"Funny Kakashi, I'm surprise you're here on time for once." Sasuke stated. Did Sasuke just make a joke? I questioned my own sanity. The adults went off to talk with each other in private like they did last time. I found it very rude that they were having a conversation about me and they know that I know that. I sat down and decided to eat a bit of sausage roll I nicked from the kitchen for breakfast before we left. I heard a small whine come from the dog, who had the courage to snuggle next to me. Rolling my eyes I broke off a piece of the sausage roll and handed it towards him.

"Thanks kid." The dog mumble. I stop chewing on the sausage roll and turned my head slowly towards the dog. Ok, so there's a talking dog next to me. Beyond scientific evidence, which proves animals can't talk there is a talking dog sitting beside me. Then again I have talked to a talking fish before.

"You're welcome." I replied, eating another bit of sausage roll.

"You know people would usually say 'Oh my goodness, it's a talking dog' or 'Excuse me' but you're the first to actually reply to what I just said." He woofed, eating another piece of sausage roll that I had given him. "You must be use to some pretty unusual things."

"If you call talking to spirits unusual then yeah I guess you can say that." I answered, earning a little laugh from him. I couldn't help but smile myself. I waited till the dog was finished before I asked. "I don't mean to sound rude but what are you doing here anyway?"

"Oh, I'm supposed to help introduce everyone to you." He answered, licking his muzzle.

"Introduce me to whom?" I asked puzzled.

"No need to worry about it now, just wait to we enter Kakashi apartment." He replied. To be honest I was a little scared to go to Kakashi apartment now because 'everyone' sounded like scary people. I waited for the adults to stop talking, to keep myself occupied I began stroking the dog. He may be a talking dog but he's still a dog, I laughed to myself (inside my head of course) and began tickling his belly.

"I see I don't need to introduce you and Pakkun then." Kakashi smiled (even though you couldn't see it) with Naruto and Sasuke standing behind him. I just shrugged and continued to scratch Pakkun belly.

"I see you another time Nariko." Sasuke spoke. Before I could say anything he left, jumping across the roof tops. Well bye then, I rolled my eyes and turned to look at Kakashi and Naruto, who were also staring after Sasuke with a confused look on their faces. Kakashi gave a quick look at Naruto but Naruto just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I better be off then." Naruto announced, giving Kakashi a quick grip on the shoulder and gave me a quick wave before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Everyone seems to be in a rush today? I thought.

"You ready to see where you are staying for the next week?" Kakashi asked, holding out his hand to help pull me out. I nodded and grabbed on to his hand. Kakashi and I had a weird relationship now; I had grown to like Kakashi after the last few days. Especially since he taught me how to dance, which I thought was impossible and would probably be forever grateful because of that. Plus, he was quite nice. I'm sure staying here won't be that bad, I mean it had to be better then listening to Sayrui complaining all the time. "This is it." Kakashi voice broke through my thoughts. I watched as he reached out for the door knob but freeze half way. "Eeeerrrr... Pakkun, you might want to go in first and explain." With a nod from Pakkun, Kakashi opened the door slightly and let Pakkun walk in first.

"Who's in there Kakashi?" I questioned, my curiosity was reaching a boiling point. Why was it so dangerous for us to walk into Kakashi apartment? I mean surely no one would just attack us if we walked in or maybe my presence was upsetting someone, I shrugged. Trying to think of a reason to why this was happening. However, before Kakashi could answer my questioned, Pakkun stuck his head out through the space in the door.

"It's alright boss, it's safe for her to come in." He called out before popping his head back into the room. Kakashi smiled and opened the door wider so he could walk through and held the door open for me to walk in. Taking a deep breath, I followed Kakashi into the house. I was expecting to see some grouchy looking person, watching me with their beady little eyes. Instead I got eight pairs of beady eyes staring at me and none of them were human. They were all dogs and for some reason they all had henohenomoheji on their backs. None of them looked too pleased to see me.

"Everyone, this is Nariko. Nariko meet Biscuit, Bull, Urushi, Akino, Guruko, Shiba, Uhei, and of course you've already met Pakkun." Kakashi introduce, pointing to every single so I wouldn't get confused on who was who. A loud little yap suddenly came out of nowhere and a small brown flash ran around the corner and threw itself at me. I managed to catch it just in time before it landed on my face. It was the cutest little puppy I had ever seen, with its soft chocolate brown fur and black button nose. "And this is Coco. The newest addition to the family." Kakashi added.

"Hi." I answered nervously, as I placed Coco back on the floor and gave him a quick scratch between the ears. All of the dogs let out low growls, making me a little more scared then before.

"Don't be like that with her guys." Pakkun shouted at the other dogs, he must be the leader or something because all the dogs stopped growling. "You only acting like that because we got our asses kicked by her wolf." As soon as Pakkun said this, my mind flashed back to the training session when I had to battle Kakashi and he summoned his pack of ninja dogs. I can't believe I forgot and mentally slapped myself. I quickly smile, as I thought back to the fight and remember Wakana totally kicking butt. Even though I told her not to hurt them, she seemed to have this thing to humiliate people. It was really mean but that was Wakana for you. After Pakkun had finished having a go at them I sent him a thankful smile. Kakashi directed me to my sleeping quarters for the next few nights; it was a small comfy room, with yellow walls and a soft looking double bed in the middle. There was also a wardrobe to put all my stuff in and a small desk. I wonder why everyone's guest room had a desk in it; I wondered quickly, before throwing my bag on the bed and sat on it. I was right. The bed was comfy.

"This is nice." I said to Kakashi, kicking my converses off. A loud yawn escapes my lips, only just remembering it was still four in the morning. Kakashi let out a little chuckle, as Coco slipped past him and jumped up on to my lap. He walked in circles for a moment before settling down and falling asleep almost instantly.

"It's still quite early; I'll let you get some sleep." With a quick wave, Kakashi closed the door shut behind him. I was thankful that I hadn't bothered to change out pj's. Lifting Coco up carefully I undid my clock and chucked it on the desk chair. Carefully I placed Coco on one of the pillows while I lifted the covers up and quickly fell back to sleep.

The sun had still not risen above the horizon and the place was lifeless, since it was too early for anyone to be up yet, expect for two teenage boys messing around in the owners office. The only noise you could hear came from this office where the boys opening and shutting draws.

"This is stupid man!" Minato suddenly shouted out. Slamming a draw shut.

"Will you keep the noise down?" Itachi hissed back, as he began search through the files of another draw.

"What makes you think the answer you're looking for is in your dad's office?" Minato snapped back, opening another draw and lazily started through another draw of useless files.

"Well..." He stopped quickly to think of a good reason why they should continue looking. "I checked everywhere else in this house and he's been spreading a lot more time than usual in here." Minato let out a loud snort but seemed satisfied with the answer and began checking the draws of the heavy wooden desk sat near the far end of the room, cautiously checking for booby traps first (this was Sasuke work office). Hopelessness began to fall onto Itachi. He had searched everywhere, gone through old photos to see if anyone he didn't recognised stand out. I mean someone that was once related to them must have some family photo somewhere. That lead led him nowhere since he couldn't find any old pictures that where more than sixteen years old. The oldest one they had was mum and dad's wedding photo. In fact nearly everyone was like that. Strange? "Come on Minato." Itachi sighed, pushing the draw closed of the last file cabinet I had been looking through. "There's nothing here." I began walking but stopped when I couldn't hear him follow me. "Minato are you coming or what?" Itachi cried, spinning around to see what he was doing. Minato was staring into a thick book. His mouth was hanging and his eyes were wide open.

"Itachi... you might want to see this." Minato stuttered. Quickly, I ran to Minato's side and popped over his shoulder. My mouth also fell open.

"Oh...my...God!" I cried out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It must be some type of genjutsu booby trap dad planted here in his desk or something because if this was true, that means...

"What are you too doing here?" Sasuke voice snapped through the thick atmosphere. We looked up to see my dad and uncle Naruto standing right beside him.

"Busted." I and Minato both yelled out.

I woke up to the smell of something delicious. I wonder what Kakashi's cooking, I wondered as I slowly moved my body out of bed. Coco was also waking up next to me; it seems the smell had also woken her up. Rubbing the sleepy dust out of my eyes I dragged my heavy feet across the floor.

"Smells good." I pointed out, as I walked into the living room. Kakashi looked up from the thing he was cooking and smiled, well I think it was a smile since his lone eye creased up.

"I hope you like scrambled eye and bacon." He cheered. I nodded my head viciously, as I sat down at the dining room table. If Kakashi food tasted as good as it smelled I won't mind staying here for the next few days.


	27. Breakfast

Despite the fact that Kakashi had made an awesome breakfast, I had to come up with some plan to win all the dogs over. I had already made it into the good books of Pakkun, Coco and Bull. Bull was easy since all I needed to do was feed him bits of bacon under the table when Kakashi wasn't looking. Three down, six more to go. At least I had the biggest scariest looking one on my side.

"Nariko there's something I've been meaning to ask you about." Kakashi voice broke through my thoughts, as I had placed another spoonful of scramble egg into my mouth.

"What about?" I asked, after I finished swallowing my food. I wonder what he wants to talk about.

"A few weeks ago, when we fought against each other. Why didn't my sharingan work on you?" He asked, playing around with the food on his plate as he waited for my answer.

"To be honest I don't really know myself." I stated, finishing off the last piece of breakfast. "I just always had this immunity to genjutsu for some reason." I shrugged. There wasn't much I could say about it. I mean I had always had it. What it was there I didn't know but it was pretty useful against powerful genjutsu attacks. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but feel like an overpowered freak but hey, all the ninjas in the hidden leaf village seemed to be learning new jutsu's everyday, so who was I to complain.

"So, you really don't know why you're immune to genjutsu?" He questioned, just to make sure he had all the facts right.

"No. Mum did an examination on me when I was about two but couldn't find anything that could cause it." I answered; picking up the cup of green tea Kakashi had made for me earlier and took sip. "Was there a reason why you wanted to know?" Suddenly interested in why he decided to bring up the subject now.

"Just curious that's all." He replied, getting up from the table and taking the empty plates to the sink. At that moment Coco decides to try and jump on my lap but jumped to high and slammed his head into the table. Ouch! I thought, as I leaned down to pick Coco up and gave him a quick inspection to make sure they was nothing serious. Stupid dog, it was the third time today he had down that, even though I had decided that this puppy had a head made out of steel it was better to be safe than sorry. After I was satisfied that Coco brain was not going to be spilling out any second, I gently placed him back on the ground and watched him shake his head as he did his own examination to check his head was ok. Laughter erupted from the room, as Coco suddenly began chasing his tail.

"Pakkun, why do puppies chase their tails?" I turned towards him where he was eating breakfast with the other dogs. He looked up with dry meat hanging around his mouth, as he thought; he licked the extra food away from his mouth.

"It is a form of entertainment for us." He simply stated, before turning back to what was left of his breakfast. I should have been smart enough to figure that out, I signed to myself. I shouldn't worry about that now; right now I had to think of a plan to get every dog to like me if I was going to survive the rest of the week.

That day I had made some improvement with making friends with the dogs. Biscuit had injured his foot sometime during the day, which I was able to heal and I helped sneak Akino and Uhei sneak some ham from the fridge. Six down, three more to go. When I woke up the next morning I was feeling pretty proud of myself for getting most of the dogs on my side in one day. I was quite surprised to find Minato and Naruto sitting around the table, tucking in to a fruit salad that Kakashi had made.

"Hey guys." I yawned, as I took a place next to Minato. I felt Minato stiffen next to me. Odd? But I decided it was just my imagination, playing tricks on my brain.

"Hello Nariko." Naruto smiled. Even through Naruto seemed completely normal I couldn't help but feel something was not right, everyone was acting really tense.

"Did I walk in on something?" I asked, since I could help but feel like I had walked into the middle of something I wasn't supposed to.

"What makes you think that Nariko?" Kakashi asked, as he placed a bowl of fruit salad in front of me before sitting himself down.

"Nothing. The atmosphere just seems tense."I mouthed, as I stuffed a bit of apple into my mouth. I froze when I felt the atmosphere beginning to tense even more. I sighed to myself, as I finished what I was chewing and stood up. "I'll be eating my breakfast in my bedroom; you may continue whatever you were talking about before." I turned to walk to my room only turning back because I forgot to pick up my bowl and then walked back to my room. I almost slammed the door on Coco head when I tried to make a dramatic exit. Good thing I have good reflexes. I swear that dog's insane. Brave but insane. I was glad to be in my room because there was no tension in here, they can keep they're bad vibes with them. I wonder what caused them to be so tensed, I wondered, as I sat at my desk to eat my breakfast. I shouldn't get myself worried, if it was about me they would have told me. I mean they're can't keep information away from me if my life's at risk. Well, I hope not anyway. At this thought I began to shake my head violently. No! They wouldn't do that, I trust them. I couldn't help but let myself feel shocked. Wow, I can't believe I actually said I trust someone. That's freaky. I smiled to myself at this fact. Why did I not realise before that I have a whole lot of weight of my shoulders now? I learnt further back in my chair to get a better look at the view it feels good to not need to look over my shoulder any more, at least not as much. I just sat there for few moments, eating my breakfast and watched the beautiful sight of the village. Yeah! It feels great to relax. Oh! I was just starting to relax and I find out I ate all of my fruit. I hope there's still some fruit left, I thought, when I get some more fruit I can begin planning how I'm going to get the rest of the dogs on my side. An evil little laugh escaped my lips at the thought. I push the chair back and began walking to the door, when a sharp pain erupted through my head. I was so shocked that I just froze where I stood, I didn't even scream out like I usually do. My vision suddenly went black. The next thing I knew I was colliding with the floor. I couldn't get my brain to work out what was going on, the only thing I could work out was Coco barking loudly. I tried to move my body but everything seemed to shut down, what the fuck was wrong with me? The only sense that was working was my hearing and at the moment all I could hear was Coco, barking his head off and scratching at the door. The next thing I heard was the door bursting open and three men and eight dogs running in. I could imagine all of them in attack mode and would be shocked to find me on the floor.

"What the hell happened? Why is there so much blood?" I heard Pakkun shout, probably asking Coco what happened. I didn't know that I had been bleeding but then again, in mine condition how could I?

"Why the hell are we standing here? She needs a hospital!" I heard Minato scream. After that my hearing went.

_It was mid-winter. The first winter I had to spend without my mother and it was hard, it seemed that this year's winter was colder then the last. I was working at a farm for a week. The money wasn't much but it was enough for me to buy supplies and move south, where it was warmer. The job wasn't exactly glamorous either but it was better than cleaner the pigs pen. I was just finishing off the last stable when the front door of the barn burst open and two people fell in. One of them I recognised as my boss, the other I didn't but assumed that this was his drinking buddy he was talking about going out with later. What were they doing in the bar? I mean I know the drunk but what sense told them to come in here. The boss suddenly looked up and spotted me staring at them. _

"_There she is that's the girl I was telling you about!" He yelled at the top of voice. His friend looked up then and a weird smile spread across his face. _

"_You're right she is a beauty." He stammered, as he pushed himself off the fall and walked over to me. "I've never seen such unique eyes before and the hair just shimmers in the moonlight." I didn't like how he was getting closer and closer to me. I tried to move away but I just slammed into the wall. Fuck! I thought, as I began searching the room for an escape. "Don't be scared little girl. I just want to have some fun." He shouted, moving closer and closer towards me. I didn't need to read his aura to tell what he meant by the word 'fun' and that was something I didn't want to get involved with. "Now come on girl, don't be ... ouch." He screamed as my foot connected with his groin, I didn't give him any chance to recover as I flipped him over my side and sent him flying towards the wall. I took this opportunity to make a run for the door but a big dark figure got in my way._

"_You're going to pay for that girl!" The boss roared, as he made a large dive. However, it was a clumsy dive so I just watched as he flew past me. I let out a quick laugh before running south into the moonlight. _

I wasn't sure if my whole body had shut down for a few hours or I was waking up from a bad nightmare. I was hoping it was a nightmare. Sadly, I never get what I want. My senses were starting to come back. First it was my sense of feeling, so I knew I was lying in bed, probably somewhere in hospital. Again. I swear I was starting to make a habit of making this my new hang out. Then my hearing returned.

"Kakashi! How many times do I have to tell you get these dogs out of here?" Tsunade shrieked. I was able to sense everyone's charka in the room. There were a lot of people in the room. All of the dogs were here, Kakashi, Minato, Itachi, Naruto, Goro, Shikaku, Nene and ... Hey! Why were Jiraiya and the twins here? They should be at school.

"You've told me about thirty times now and the all refused, so either you make them move or let them be." Kakashi snapped suddenly. I can imagine that was a bad thing to say in front of Tsunade and could imagine her about to explore any second. Instead I heard Tsunade taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out again. I guess Kakashi was lucky, this time. I could do much since I was waiting for all of my functions to start working again, it wasn't until the twins and Jiraiya started arguing over some technique they learnt at school today my body started to function properly again.

"I'm surprised you three don't have the ability to wake the dead with all the noise you're making." I said. It barely came out as a whisper, since my throat was very dry.

"Nariko!" Everyone shouted at the same time, as they realised I was awake, everyone seemed to move towards the bed but all stopped when they realised at gathering around the bed wasn't such a good idea. Which I was quite grateful for because I didn't have the strength to face all of them now. In the end it was Tsunade who approached me with a drink of water.


	28. The time before that

I wasn't sure if I was meant to feel happy or scared at the moment. Tsunade had made everyone leave the room which I was quite relieved about because even though I love those guys they were starting to give me a headache. However, Tsunade was still in the room and she was the last person I wanted to tangle with.

"All right I think it's time that you and me found out what this problem is don't you think." She smiled. Tsunade just smiled. That means one thing. The earth is going to end any second. I mean, I have never seen her smile. Well that's not exactly true I have seen her smile but never at me. I was just glad to keep my shock expression hidden behind a blankness expression. Remember I was raised by a ninja, so I know how to keep my emotions in check sometimes, especially if you're against someone like Tsunade. "First of all..." She started, pulling a chair by the bed, so she could sit down. "What were you doing before these attacks happened?" I thought back to what I had been doing before my whole body had shut down. I racked my brain as I repeated the scenario through my head over and over again. Thinking back I wasn't doing anything that was significant to my condition. My thoughts were distracted for a second when a young woman with short black hair came in and whispered something into Tsunade ear. Tsunade consider the question for a moment before nodding in agreement. The woman walked quickly out of the room after that.

"I don't know." I said, finally giving up on what I should be looking out for. "The only thing I was doing at the time was relaxing and daydreaming out the window." I saw a pulse on Tsunade forehead, which made me re-think the whole think before answering thing or at least how you say it.

"And the time before that?" She demanded, returning to her professional manner. I re-ran my memories carefully as I thought back to where I had fainted on my way to breakfast.

"I was just day-dreaming about pancakes when we were walking to breakfast." I stated. At this statement one of Tsunade eyebrows went up.

"And the time before that." She repeated, absorbing this piece of information like it was the most important piece of news right now. Returning back to her question, I began repeating the scene in my mind when I had fainted in front of everyone at breakfast.

"I guess I was daydreaming then as well." At that point both of Tsunade eyebrows went half way up her forehead. After a few moments, her face returned back to her serious mask she would usually wear all day. It seemed like years had gone by before she spoke again.

"Can you try day dreaming while I check and see if anything changes?" What an odd request? I thought, I mean it was just day-dreaming, nothing bad comes from that. Nevertheless, I nodded in agreement. Tsunade hands glowed green placing them on my forehead and stomach. She sent her chakra through my body, watching for signs of the slightest change in my body. I found it really hard to day dream, since I only did it when I was really relaxed and Tsunade standing over me watching my every move (inside and out) wasn't exactly making me feel relaxed. In the end the only thing I could dream about was when I was watching the sunrise back at Kakashi place. "Oh my Kami!" Tsunade cried out suddenly. Before I could ask what was wrong, sharp pain stabbed every single part of my body. A horrific scream left my throat. I shot forward in agony, forcing Tsunade to push me down with all her might, so I wouldn't go throwing myself out of the window. Sweat poured down her face as she tried to restrain me. My whole body was jerking all around the place; Tsunade had to stay in place and move at the same time, knocking over the chair behind her. I wasn't sure but I think I might have just slapped Tsunade in the face. "Shizune!" She shouted; dodging another one of my swinging arms. A second later the door burst open and the woman who was in here earlier ran to the other side of the bed and grabbed my arms. I don't know what the hell Tsunade was doing but whatever it was it felt like someone was stabbing myself with a thousand knives stabbing me over and over again. I hadn't realised more people had run into the room, until two other pairs of arms grabbed my legs, stopping me from kicking my legs. I opened my eyes for a split second to see it was Sasuke and Kakashi. Another painful cry left my mouth. What the hell was Tsunade doing? It felt like she was trying to yank something out of me. After that my mind went into complete darkness.

Ow! My head hurts, I whined. It felt like someone had bashed my head repeatedly against a concrete wall. I thought my eyes were still closed until a little bit of light peep through the window. With difficulty, I managed to pull myself up and look out the window. The Sun was just starting to rise above the horizon. Wow! I must have slept through a whole day.

**Well duh!**

Go away!

**Hey I was just saying. **

"You're up early." A calm, soft voice spoke from the door way.

"I have my days." I smiled at Kakashi, as he came in and sat down on one of the chairs beside the bed that Tsunade had knocked over earlier.

"How are you feeling?" Kakashi asked. There was real concern and worry in his voice; it was something I wasn't used to. I was used to the confident Kakashi who was so laid back and made great scrambled eggs.

"Well, despite the fact that every bone, flesh and hair on my body is screaming in pain I think I'm doing pretty well." I joke, trying to ease some of Kakashi concern. It worked a little but the worry was still there. "So how many days left are there of you guarding me?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"About four days." He answered, leaning back in the chair a bit more. That's when I finally notice he wasn't reading his book for once.

"Where's your book?" I questioned, it was a strange sight to see him without it. Kakashi seemed quite taken back by the question before answering.

"I haven't had the chance to go home and collected it." He stated. I only nodded and watched the sun rising slowly in the distance.

"The sunrise from your window is much better." I muttered after a few minutes of silence.

"Really! I thought you wouldn't be up early enough to see it." He smirked behind his mask. A small smile slipped on to my lips as well at the statement.

"To be honest, it's because of the sunrise that I'm always in bed until about ten or eleven." I replied. Kakashi eyebrow rose a little; showing me that he was confused by what I meant. "I always get up early every day to watch the sunrise, then I go back to sleep." I smiled, watching the orange glow turn into a yellow one. Kakashi made some sought of noise that sounded like a 'huh' but I chose to ignore it. To be honest getting up early to see the sunrise was a habit that I had rubbed off my mother. My stomach twisted in pain as the memory of her smiling at the sunrise suddenly appeared into my thoughts. My sadness must of shown on my face, since I felt a warm had hugged my shoulder and heard Kakashi asking if I was ok. I nodded, trying to force the memory to the back of my mind. Before anything else could be said a puff of smoke appeared at the bottom of the bed. When it finally began to disappeared, I could see the outlines of Coco and Pakkun.

"Yo." Pakkun greeted. Coco came bouncing over to me with something in his mouth. When he was close enough he dropped the thin rectangle object into my hands. When I realised what it was I burst out laughing. The dogs had brought me a bar of chocolate.

"Thanks guys, this was really sweet of you." I smiled, placing the chocolate onto the bedside table. "I make sure I'll bring some biscuits back ho... I mean back to Kakashi place when I get out of here." I mentally slapped myself in the head. I was just about to call Kakashi apartment home, how stupid could I get. For the next few hours I talked with the dogs and shared my chocolate with Kakashi, even though we shouldn't have been because it was bad to have junk before breakfast. Coco was showing me a new trick the Pakkun and the other dogs had taught him when the door opened and Tsunade walked into the room. Before anyone had notice Kakashi quickly grabbed the chocolate and hid it in one of his pouches. That was close, I thought. I was pretty sure Tsunade didn't want me eating chocolate after what had happened.

"I'm surprised to see both of you up so early." Tsunade joked. Despite the bad joke I couldn't really blame her since it was probably a surprised to find I and Kakashi up this early because we are probably the laziest people in the world. In a blink Tsunade serious mask was up in front of her face again. "Why are these dogs here Kakashi, this is a hospital not a dog day care centre!" She shouted when she noticed Pakkun and Coco sitting on the bed next to me. Kakashi said it wasn't his fault they just proofed in and that they only wanted to check if I was alright. To be honest I didn't know which Tsunade scared me the most. The bad tempered one or the happy one.

"I had what where?" I asked again for the third time, after half an hour of Tsunade explaining the situation to me. Still not believing the story I was being told. Tsunade let out a loud sigh of annoyance.

"You've had a living liquid substance that has been wrapped your spine, when you day dream you had been letting your metal guard down, allowing it to attack your body, for your body to defend against it your body went in to shut down." She said for the fourth time, watching to see if this piece of information had gotten through to my brain yet.

"I had what where?" I repeated. This time Tsunade actually slapped herself in the face. There seemed to be a moment where she wanted to shout out the loudest she could possibly scream but didn't to keep her dignity. I couldn't believe it. There was some living substance that had been living inside me and I hadn't even known. Slowly, I watched Tsunade begin to remove her hand, showing a slightly red mark left behind. I would of laugh, if it didn't lead into a run for my life from Tsunade scenario. "Does this mean I can go ho ... I mean back to Kakashi house." I stuttered quickly before I could say that last part. Was I crazy or something, I wondered to myself. I just nearly said home. I could feel Kakashi stiffen at what I nearly said but he didn't say anything about it. Tsunade didn't seem to notice and was considering my question with care before answering.

"We'll have to do a few more tests," She suggested "but I don't see why you can't go back to Kakashi apartment today." She smiled. I guess she was in a cheery mood today, since it was the second time today that she smiled at me. I was still surprised the roof hadn't fallen on to us yet, the thought let a small laugh escape my lips. "Is something funny?" Tsunade asked, giving me one of her infamous glares. Realising what I had down I quickly shook my head.

"No Tsunade, just a funny thought passed through my head." I managed to speak. Her glare loosened but I knew I wasn't out of the deep end yet.


	29. Vulnerable

The last few hours were a nightmare. I swear Tsunade must have thought I had been making fun of her earlier on because the processes I had to suffer were painfully slow. By the time we had left the hospital, it was starting to get dark again. The memory of Tsunade telling me what had been inside me flashed into my mind again, sending a shiver down my back.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi asked, suddenly appearing closer beside me then he had before. I chewed my lip nervously at the sudden closeness between us.

"I'm fine." I smiled back at Kakashi, before focusing back on the scene in front of me as we made our way to Nene house. I could tell Kakashi didn't believe me one bit but decided not to push the subject and he was right not to believe me. Ever since I had left the hospital I had felt different. I couldn't put my finger but I had felt more withdrawn from people when they came to visit me. The only person I would let near me was -well not person, mammal- Coco and the other dogs. Plus Tsunade had trouble with examining me as well and it took all my might not to run off every time she touched my wrist to check my pulse. Kakashi began to move a little further away but still keeping close. I let go of a deep breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding. What the hell was wrong with me? I thought angrily at myself. Whatever it was I hoped it was only temporary because I could see my strange behaviour was not only affecting me but everyone around me as well. Even Sayrui seemed to act different around me (she had been dragged over by Itachi to see how I was doing) she didn't insult me for once. Heck! She didn't even give me one of her evil glares.

"We're here." Kakashi called to me and we jumped down from the building landing right in front of the Hyuga mansion. Unlike the other times there was no one here to meet us. Strange? I thought. Just then, the door to the house slid open and Tenten walked out, still in her dressing gown.

"Good morning Nariko, Kakashi." She bowed respectfully. "I'm sorry that we weren't out here to meet you but we felt you would be a few hours late as usual." Tenten smiled wickedly. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and made up some excuse about the dogs causing problems. Which I thought was unfair, since it was all Kakashi fault that we were late. Unlike the other times as well, they didn't go off to have some private discussion but instead Kakashi said a quick goodbye before disappearing and Tenten directed me into the house. Like the Uchiha mansion the place was gigantic. Great! I'm going to get lost in the hallways again, I mumble to myself miserably. What is it with these people and big houses? I wondered, as I looked around the house, just like the Uzumaki's and Uchiha's the place was covered in photographs and decorations. It was a very bright place, despite being dark outside and only a few candles were lit. Tenten was very nice and showed me to my room, before leaving she asked if I needed anything. I said I was fine. When she left I threw my stuff on the floor and fell onto the bed, thinking back to what I had just said to Tenten. I was not fine, I was far from fine.

"Wake up sleepy head!" Nene voiced screamed through my head. My head jerked up for a second, before settling back down into the pillow again.

"Hmmhmhmnmmhuhhh" I muffed through the pillow. Translation: Get hell out I'm trying to sleep here.

"I had no idea what you just said but whatever you said, it still time to get up. It's nearly eleven." She nagged. Grumbling into my pillow I grabbed one of the pillows and chucked it in Nene direction. However, my aim was clumsy and flew straight past Nene head without her needing to dodge it. I grabbed the other pillow and dug my head underneath it. I thought that Nene might grab the pillow that I had thrown at her and used it as a hitting weapon to get me out of bed. Instead, I felt the bed lower ever so slightly with the added weight. "What happened to you?" It was barely a whisper, but I could still hear the pure emotion that came from it.

"To be honest I don't know either." Was all I could say. For four days now I had felt people mentally ask me that question. But Nene was the first to say it out loud and to my face (the bit that wasn't in the pillow anyway).

"Well, tell me about it," She smiled sadly, "maybe we can figure out together." Her voice sounded so reassuring that I believed it might work.

"Ever since I got out of the hospital, I feel that everyone is a consent threat to me." I began, trying my hardest to stay calm, "I just feel so...so..."

"Vulnerable?" She suggested, since I was having trouble finishing off the sentence.

"Yeah! That's exactly how I feel." I answered smiling. I knew it seemed ridiculous to be smiling at something like that but I finally understood what I had been feeling for the past few days. The question now was why?

"Oh sweetie, don't you see?" Nene cried out all of a sudden.

"No." I snapped more sharply then I intended. Nene didn't seem to notice and began to explain what she meant.

"Nariko, all of your life you've had to guard yourself from monsters, people and starvation. Finding out that you've had something inside you for years and not knowing about it has made you seem more fatigue." I ponder on what Nene had said to me for a few minutes, putting what she said and what I been feeling for the past couple of days together.

"I find it amazing that everyone can read me like a book except me." I stated glumly. "Now the question is how do I get over it?" We both lay there, thinking of this question.

"How do you feel about a fight?" Nene asked slowly. Before I could ask her what the hell see meant she jumped off the bed and run out of the room. Curiosity got the better of me, so I followed her out of my bed and out of the house, only to duck the next second when a kunai got thrown at me head.

"Kami! Nene! What the hell do you think you are doing?" I shouted at her when I dodge another kunai. Nene said nothing but came at me with a kunai in her hand. I grabbed one of the kunai out of the wall just in time to block Nene attack. I pushed her away but she just came at me again. What the hell was she doing? I shouted to myself, as she came out me attack after attack. I suddenly caught a glimpse of Nene leg ready to kick me around the head. I quickly grabbed her leg and pulled it around. Her body fell heavily on the fall. I quickly kicked the weapon out of hand. Before she had a chance to get back up again I quickly pinned her down.

"See, not so fatigue are you." Nene smiled up at me. Confusion ran through my brain as I stared back at her in utter disbelief.

"What do you mean?" I demanded. Getting more confused by the second. I stood up so Nene could sit up. A wide grin was spread across her face.

"You just kicked my ass. So you shouldn't feel fatigue anymore." I could do nothing but just stare at her.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I cried out. I felt like something had picked me up and thrown me into crazy town. Nene just laughed and stood up right next to me. She made some kind of hand gesture at me and her.

"You're not jumping back in fright anymore." She grinned. She was right. I had just notice that I hadn't jumped back like I would usually do if someone was close to me. I was waiting to see if my body would suddenly react and force me to jump back any second.

"Wohoo!" I cheered, jumping as high as I could in the air. "I'm cured of whatever physiological phrase I was going through!" Nene could only laugh and point as I began jumping up and down in the air.

"Come on Nariko." She laughed as she pulled me back into the house. "It time for breakfast and dad's probably thinking you've been kidnapped now." We both laughed at the statement, as Nene and I walked back into the house.

A few days past, Nene and I barely spent a minute apart from each other. We watched movies, did some training, shopping (though I did feel sorry that Neji had to come every time because I thought the continuous shopping must be driving him crazy), we even changed Jin diaper together. I liked spending time with little Jin. He was the cutest baby I had ever seen. Every time I went to town with Nene (and Neji) I would always bring back a little toy for him. Tenten had tried to stop me spending my money on him, otherwise he'll grow up to be spoilt but I just couldn't help myself. That was why I was playing with him right now on the floor mat, while Nene and Itachi sat watching us and trying to suppress laughter. I couldn't really blame them since I was making the most ridiculous baby faces at Jin. Nene got up and muttered something about going to the toilet. I was glad that she had finally left because I needed to ask Itachi question that I had been suppressing for the last couple days now.

"So how long have you and Nene been together?" I grinned. I had to use all the will I could muster, so I didn't laugh when Itachi face had dropped.

"I don't know what you are talking about." He stated after regaining his composer.

"Come on, admit it." A small smile began to grow across my face, as an evil idea popped into my head. "If you don't then I'll start making funny songs up about you two and sing them out loud so everyone in the village can hear them." Itachi gave me one of the scariest looking death glares I had ever seen, but I still held my ground.

"You wouldn't." He threaten. My evil gin grew even wider as I began to sing.

"Itachi and Nene, sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g, first comes..."

"Alright! Alright!" Itachi interrupted, his hands rustling with his hair. "We've been dating for nearly a year now." Despite the fact that he was annoyed like hell at me at this moment, a small smile had appeared on his face as he thought of the time he and Nene had spent together. "How did you figure it out?" He asked, curiosity was written all over his face.

"It's kind of hard to miss the love notes you send her every morning, plus the flowers that mysteriously appear every time you come around and the looks you give each other when you think no one's watching." I listed, seeing Itachi face turn redder and redder by the second. Jin small cry caught my attention, as I lifted him up on to my lap and began tickling his belly.

"I guess you can't wait to have kids huh." Itachi smiled sweetly, as he watched me and Jin together.

"Hey! Don't try and change the subject." I argued back, as I sat Jin on my lap and gave Itachi evils. Try to anyway.

"What's going on?" Nene call from the door way and sat next to Itachi. Itachi seemed to be debating with himself, if he should tell her that I knew about their relationship or not.

"We were just talking about you and Itachi being together." I spoke after a while of silence. If he wasn't going to say anything then I will. Nene turned to Itachi in shock.

"You were talking about what!" She cried and hit Itachi on the head with a cushion.

Yesterday was so funny. It took five minutes for Nene to stop hitting Itachi over the head with the pillow. I would of jumped in to stop her but I just thought the scene was too funny and plus I was busy playing with Jin. When she did finally calm I explained that I had figure it out and I had I had forced Itachi into revealing information.

"Ok girls, I'll see you later." She kissed the top of Nene head and picked up Jin before setting off to the hospital. It seemed that Jin had come down with a bug overnight, so Tenten was going to the hospital to get him check. Even though I could of checked him over, she said I had done enough nice stuff for him already, besides he already had an appointment to get a flu jab anyway. I hope he's alright, I prayed to myself.


	30. The illness strikes

I cursed myself every day, since I had jinx Jin health. Jin was one of the first to come down with the illness. Day after day more and more children began arriving at the hospital with the same illness. It would start off looking like the occasional twenty-four bug but after a few hours it would grow to bloody vomiting, rapid breathing and high fevers, which lead to declensions. It started off with the babies and grew to anyone that was under the age of eighteen. Some had already died. I had forced Tsunade into letting me help at the hospital, since I was trained and the place was already overcrowded and under staff. Only the ones with o-negative blood seemed to be the lucky ones. That included me. Except, for me, I wouldn't call it luck. I call it a curse. Every day I watched more and more the people I had grown to love enter the hospital every day. The Hokage had sealed the city off in case the disease spread to the other villages. I could feel my heart breaking up bit by bit when some I loved was checked into one of the rooms. But the day my heart really broke was when Minato entered the hospital. Seeing Minato enter the hospital had sent me running to the toilet, vomiting and crying my eyes out. Kakashi kneeled beside, gently rubbing my back and whispering comforting words. I was glad to have Kakashi with me. Ever since the diseased struck Kakashi had volunteered to be my body guard all the time, giving Neji, Sasuke and Naruto an opportunity to be with their loved ones. I was already five minutes into my shift and I already felt like the weights had been added to my back and arms. Ever since I had started working I had worked non-stop to help everyone that was hear. It had gotten so bad that Tsunade or Kakashi would have to force me to rest. When I did finally rest, they were filled with nightmares. I mentally slapped myself and bit my bottom lip, so I would stop falling asleep. The first room I went to visit was the Uchiha room. Tsunade had order families into the same room so parents wouldn't have to keep moving from room to room. When I opened the door I was surprised to find Naruto in the room along with the Uchiha family. I mentally slapped myself on the head again, remembering that the Uchihas, Hygagas and the Uzumakis saw each other as family. I shouldn't have been surprised to see Naruto visiting his nephew.

"Good morning Nariko." Naruto smiled but the smile didn't reach his eyes. I simply smiled because I didn't have the energy to waste talking. Forcing the tiredness away she began to examine Itachi who was the nearest to the door. Nariko tried not to look at all five children at once, Itachi had been the newest edition of the Uchiha family to enter the hospital.

"Goodness Nariko, when the last time you slept?" Ino asked. Quickly stiffening a yawn, I focussed more chakra into Itachi chest, to get rid of the mucus that was building up, so he could breathe easier.

"About ten minutes ago." I muttered quietly, trying to bring the temperature down.

"Yeah and of the half an hour rest she was meant to be having she only slept for ten of it." Kakashi stated. I had only just notice that he had entered the room. On other days I would of giving him death glares and come back with some smart comment but I was just too tired and I needed to focus my energy else well. Screaming tore through the air, as I looked up and saw Umiko shaking violently in her bed. No! Oh please Kami! Not Umiko. I screamed inside my head. Every time someone started having a fit was the time that someone was about to die. Summoning every bit of strength I had I poured it into all into Umiko, trying desperately to find out what the problem was. No one had been saved yet. No one could stop the progress. Not even Tsunade and she was the best. No! I thought angrily at myself. I will not loss hope. I will not give up. I will not fail! All of a sudden a new type of energy sparks inside. The new energy fed every inch of my body and I poured it all into Umiko. Yes! I cried. There it is, there's the problem. Some of the blood and mucus had got stuck in the cord that connected the stomach and the mouth together. If I get Umiko to vomit it up with a little bit of help from my chakra then I should be able to clean it out. I stopped sending chakra into Umiko for a second and looked at her sweet face.

"I'm sorry Umiko." I whispered, before stuffing two my fingers down her throat. As soon as I took them out Umiko began to vomit over the side of the bed. Sending chakra into my hands again I began forcing the blood and mucus up and out of the mouth. By the time Umiko had cough all of it out, she was sound asleep again and I was covered in vomit, blood, mucus and sweat. I was trying not to faint, as my breathing became more rapid and the world seemed to be disappearing and reappearing. I turn to one of the twins ready to give them and Sayrui an inspection but instead my knees buckle underneath me and I on to my knees and hands. No I was not going to full in to unconsciousness! I had work to do, I need to get up and check on the others. Slowly and painfully I began to force myself back up.

"Nariko! Stop it your killing yourself!" Kakashi shouted out from somewhere in the room. She ignored him and continued to push herself up. She had no energy to waste. I have to my job, I have to save what I have left, I have to... Something hit her on the back of her neck and suddenly darkness surrounded her.

She was going to kill Kakashi for knocking her out. She may have been nearly dying of exhausting but she was used to it and had worked on keeping her senses alert, even after death. That including sensing chakra. She had felt Kakashi flash behind her for a second before she was knocked out. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping for but she assumed it had been for a long time, since when she had got out of bed and walked into the bathroom the bags that had been hanging under her eyes had disappeared and she felt refreshed and was bouncing with energy. However, she was going to have to kill Kakashi later, since I had a lot of stuff to do first. Kakashi had tried to talk to her when she woke up but run back out of the room when she picked up a pillow and threw it at him, along with a million names that everyone in the hospital could hear. She immediately got changed and stormed out of her, ignoring Kakashi completely. I had a lot of things to do. First I wanted to check on Umiko to see if what I had done had worked. Instead I bumped into Tsunade instead. It turned out that the technique she had used on Umiko had saved every other child life so far but there was still no improvement on finally out how to stop it. This meant that I could skip the second thing I wanted to do and go straight on to my third. Was to get back to work.

"I'm sorry Nariko; we have no shifts opened now. For the time being get some rest, you need it." Tsunade didn't even give me a chance to argue back, she turned away and went into the closet room to check on a patient. Rest my ass. There was no way I was going to sleep when so money people needed me.

"Where are you going?" Kakashi inquired as he followed me down the hallway.

"To the library." I stated, ignoring him the whole way. I was still mad at him for knocking me out. Even if I was killing myself. I strode ahead with Kakashi only a few steps behind me, reaching the end of the hall; I pushed the large double doors open and walked into the library. When I first saw the library I fell in love with it. If I had my way I would have spent the rest of my life reading every book in this place. Sadly, like all others things I wanted in life, the universe didn't seem to kind to grant it. After a few moments of picking out a few medical journals I sat down and began to read. Even though Tsunade had already been through all of the books a hundred times already, I decided it was my time to have a look. I know I must have been crazy. If Tsunade, one of the great Sannin couldn't find the cure, what chance did I have of finding them? But I had to do something productive with my time. Maybe, just maybe. I might spot something that Tsunade didn't. Book after book I went through, searching desperately for some kind of answer.

"You not going to read all of those books are you?" Kakashi asked, as I closed the eighth book and opened the ninth. I ignored him as I was still in a mood with him. "Using the silent treatment on me huh?" He almost laughed. Slamming the book shut, I reached for the other one. "I only knocked you out because you were going to kill yourself." The next thing Kakashi knew was to duck for his life as a book went whizzing over his head.

"That was my choice!" I snapped, as I threw another book at him. "I was willing into sacrificing my energy to save those I loved." Tears began falling down my face as sad memories appeared into my mind. Sending painful waves of anger through me. "Do you know what it's like to see the person you love the most die in front of your eyes?" Kakashi began to duck less, as my aim was beginning to become wilder. "It was my entire fault! I could of down something but I didn't because I was a scared little kid. I won't be weak again. I won't!" Before I could throw the next book, Kakashi hand was gripped firmly around my wrist.

"Nariko! Please calm down." Kakashi cried out desperately.

"Fuck you!" I cried and swung my arm at him. It seemed like time had frozen for a second. I couldn't believe it. I had just slap Kakashi. We both stared at each other in total shock, until a soft cough caught our attention. We both turned to see Sasuke standing in the doorway.

"Kakashi, I think it's time you got some rest. I'll look after Nariko." Sasuke stated calmly. Slowly, Kakashi let go of my hand and walked out of the library. I turned quickly away from Sasuke, wiping away the tears fiercely. Sending a bit of chakra into the books on the floor, I lifted them up and place them back on the table. I instantly jumped back into my books and tried to focus my mind on something positive.

"He knows what it's like." Sasuke spoke quietly that I wasn't sure if he had actually spoken at all.

"Excuse me?" I questioned, lifting my head from the book it had been planted in.

"I said he knows what it's like to watch you love ones die in front of his eyes." I stated calmly again. If I didn't feel guiltily before, I sure as hell did now.

"He's lost everyone that's ever been close to him: his father, his father, his closet friends, his teammates, his lover and his little girl." A cold and still silence had fallen on to us.

"He had a little girl?" I whispered, barely able to utter the words out. Sasuke nodded. It was a simple gesture and it hit right at home. Why can't I do anything right? I thought angrily to myself, as I slammed the table. "Ouch!" I cried out when a book from one of the piles dropped on to my hand. Grunting a million curses I grabbed the book and was about to slam it shut when something caught my interest.

_The Marcus disease shows minor symptoms of high fever, rapid breathing and vomiting. This disease only affects children from the age of new borns to teenagers under the age of eighteen. Even though this is a twenty-four hour bug, I suggest that doctors come up with a cure as quickly as possible to get rid of the disease. If the disease is left to mutate over hundreds of years, then the minor symptoms will become major and result in death to young children._

I looked at the front of the book to see when it was published. It was only ten years old, so it couldn't possibly be this bug. However, something inside me kept nagging me at the back of my head. Suddenly, a flash of an old memory appeared in my head.

"_Mummy, what's mutation?" A young me asked, as I was helping my mother unpack herbs she needed to perform a medicine with to a young child with a bad virus._

"_Well dear it when something, like a bacteria, changes it DNA structure." She answered simply, crushing the herbs together._

"_Why is it bad to people who get sick?" I asked again, handing my mother another herb._

"_Because sweetie, if a virus mutates then it becomes harder to stop. Though they don't change for over hundreds of years, so it gives doctors some time to fight them." She finished crushing the plants and handed over the vile of medicine to me. "Unless someone creates a jutsu that speeds up mutation then we are perfectly safe."_

Realisation shot through my head like a thunder bolt.

"That's it!" I cried out in excitement. I knew what was causing this. 


	31. The six armed man

Before Sasuke could ask 'What the hell does that mean' I had already bolted out of the library, running down the hall and up the stairs. If my theory was right that meant someone had to be casting some kind of jutsu to speed up the process of a mutation. Nurses and doctors, stared at me when I ran past them and barged right into Tsunade office.

"What the- Nariko! What are you doing running into my office like a crazy person?" She shouted, snapping her book that she had just been reading shut. Apparently, I wasn't the only one doing research in their spare time. Moments later Sasuke came running in followed by Naruto, Neji and Kakashi. I understand why Sasuke here but why are the other three, I thought. Flipping back through my memory, I remember I had run past them all outside the Uzumaki room but that wasn't important right now.

"Lady Tsunade, I found out what's causing the illnesses." I cried out, shoving the book under her nose. Tsunade carefully took the book out of my hands and slowly read the book. After a minute or two realisation of what I was suggesting struck Tsunade face.

"Nariko, you understand accusation you are making?" She asked calmly, closely the book and looking up to stare into my eyes.

"I do Lady Tsuande, even though this is only a theory, I believe it is one we cannot risk to ignore." I stated firmly, determined that my theory would get across. Tsunade brought her hands up and rested her head on her hands, in deep thought. Everyone was silent. The four men standing behind me were confused like hell about the silent communication between me and Tsunade.

"Naruto!" She finally snapped, making all of us jump ten feet in the air. "If what Nariko and I are thinking is true, then we're in a lot of trouble."

About two hours later, Naruto had four squadrons out, searching for anything suspicious that would prove my theory corrected. I felt a bit happier than before, knowing that if my theory was wrong then at least we could narrow down the possibilities down. However, I was still feeling a bit guilty about Kakashi. But I couldn't apologise right now since Tsunade had put me back on to a shift, so I was busy doing my rounds. I moved into the next room to find a pretty little girl, playing with her doll.

"Hello sweetie." I smiled, as I entered the room, Sasuke following close behind. The girl instantly smiled back and waved a bandaged arm. I guess she's an o negative, I wondered, when I picked the chart, reading the name and the information, proving my suspicions were correct. Gently, I took her arm in my hands and began sending green chakra into it. "That's a pretty dolly, what's her name?" I asked, trying to keep the child's attention away from the healing process, since most children found it quite scary.

"Her names Mimi." The girl grinned happily, holding the dolly in front of my face, so I could get a better look at the doll. It looked like a very expansive doll, with its smooth china skin and well made dress. Using my free hand, I took the dolls hand and gave it a small shake.

"Hello Mimi, it's nice to meet you." I said, earning a few small giggles from the girl.

"It's good to see you up and smiling again Bell." A chilling voice came from the door. My heart froze for a second. Looking at the door entrance I saw Daitaro leaning against the door frame. The little girl froze beside me when she heard Daitaro voice. I guess I'm not the only who got the creeps from Daitaro. I had to fight off a protective instinct to throw him out of the room, so I could keep him away from Bell. Wrapping my free arm around the small girl, I focused on the arm and put my attention in healing it.

"It's good to see you too Nariko." Daitaro also stated. Against my will I turn my head slightly, so my eyes could meet Sasuke and plead him to get Daitaro out of here. It didn't work though since Sasuke eyes were focused on Daitaro. Well that's just great, I thought.

"I don't have much time Bell, so I thought I would just pop in to see if you were ok." He smiled, even though it did not reach his eyes.

"Fine." Bell whispered. Anger rose up in me when I heard the terror in her voice. I just wanted to go and send him flying through a wall.

"That's great to know kid." Daitaro faked smiled again, "I'll see you at home tomorrow kiddo." I think he was going to ruffle her hair or something but I never got to find out because as soon as I felt Bell flinch from him I quickly used the arm that was wrapped around her to pull her away from him. "What do you think you are doing?" Daitaro snarled angrily at me.

"I thought I saw a bug," I quickly thought, placing Bell on the bed again, "But it must have been a trick of the light or something." I thought Daitaro was going to pounce on me or something. He probably would have done, if Sasuke hadn't suddenly appeared behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Weren't you just leaving?" Sasuke asked. At that moment Daitaro seemed to calm down and shot Sasuke a friendly smile.

"Yes, I was. Bye Bell." He waved before walking out of the room. I let out a huge breath I didn't know I had been gripping on to. I seemed to be doing that a lot these days, that and ending up in hospital. Seconds later Bell seemed normal again and was talking about her other twenty-seven dolls but how this one was her favourite because of reasons I have now forgotten. I quickly finished off healing the arm and said my goodbye and left to go into the next room. However, before I could reach the door Sasuke gently pulled me to the side.

"How do you know Daitaro?" He demanded softly. I knew there was something not right about Daitaro but first Minato, then the boys and now Sasuke. Why did people seem not to like him so much?

"Let's just say we got to know each other over dress taste." I shrugged, trying to walk to my next patient's room but Sasuke pulled me back again.

"Care to elaborate?" He questioned.

"No." I stated, trying to walk away again.

"Look." Sasuke exclaimed, pulling me back towards him again and kept his hand firmly on my shoulder so I didn't try to walk away again. "Stay away from Daitaro." It was not a yes or no question; it was a straight forward order.

"Why does everyone say that?" I cried out louder then I intended, "I do stay away from him, he's the one that always approaches me." I was starting to get annoyed that it always seemed to be my fault that Daitaro always approached me.

"Now if you excuse me I need to pop into the little girl's room for a moment." Shrugging off Sasuke hand and walking to the bathroom which was thankfully only a few steps away. As soon as I entered I collapsed over the sink, breathing deeply. I needed to get control of myself and not let Sasuke get to me. Suddenly hands grabbed me from behind and slapped their hands on my mouth. There was no way I could fight back since there seemed to be six hands, holding my body, so I couldn't produce any kicks or punch anyone. When I tried to use my chakra I felt it instantly drain away. I tried screaming for Sasuke but my cries were muffled. I could feel myself being dragged towards the windows. I needed to do something and fast. I loosen the shoe on my left foot and flung it at the wall, making a loud thud. Suddenly the door flew open and Sasuke run in with a chidori in his hand. My heart sank as two shadowy figures run past and attack Sasuke, allowing my captor to escape with me.

Well this sucks. Not only am I being kidnap by a six armed man but I lost one of my shoes. I know it sounds ridiculous whining about losing one of my shoes but I did loved those converses. Besides, I am a girl. I also couldn't access my charka, since somehow the man just drained it out of me. Whoever this guy was he was fast. He had managed to travel from the hospital to the forest in less than ten minutes. I had to do something him to slow him down. But what? Out of desperation, I did the only thing I could do.

"Ooowww! You little bitch!" He screamed when I sank my teeth into one of his many arms. For a second the arms released themselves. I took this opportunity to make my escape but something grabbed me by the hair. The next thing I knew my face was forced into the tree. Blood poured down my face, since the impact with the tree had creaked my head open. Ouch! I wanted to scream but I bit my tongue to make sure I wouldn't.

"I didn't spend months planning and mutating that illness, just to have you bite me you little brat and not get my money." He screamed at me, pulling me up by the hair, so my face was level with his ugly scarred one.

"You killed innocent children for money!" I shrieked back at him, earning me another impact with the trunk.

"That's right and the only way you it's going to stop is if you kill me, which isn't going to happen." He smirked, drawing me back to his eyes. I spat blood at him, landing in his eyes. Again my face was slammed into the tree again. An idea pop into my head. If I could keep pissing this off I might be able to slow him down and give the others time to catch up.

"You better behave now or I'll make you regret it." He hissed. I spat more blood at him, straining his clothes.

"Fuck you, you piece off-" I didn't get to finish since I was thrown back into the other tree. For what seemed like an hour I shouted abuse at the man or spat at him, leading my head to be repeatedly or was kicked in the stomach a lot. My so called body guards better be here soon, because I'm going through a lot of agony to slow this guy down. It seemed my silent prayer was answered, since the next thing I knew was the roaring power of two chidoris. All of the bodies stood up when I felt the swirls of static fly through the air. Even though my eyesight wasn't as good as it was a few minutes ago but I can still make out the blurry figures of Sasuke and Kakashi. I tried smiling at them to so how grateful I was but I think they couldn't see it because of the blood pouring down my face. Slowly, my chakra started to return while Sasuke and Kakashi battled the other man. I suddenly felt Kakashi crouching in front of me.

"Nariko! Whatever you do, don't close your eyes." He demanded. Well duh! I am a trained medic. I know I'm not allowed to fall asleep if my heads bashed in otherwise I might full into a coma. Using the chakra I had regained I sent some of it into my head. I couldn't do much but at least I could clear up my version and stop some of the pain in my head. As soon as my version cleared a sliver glint above Kakashi caught my eye. It was the six armed man, holding a sword above his head.

"No!" I cried out as I pushed Kakashi out of the way, ending up with me with the sword through my stomach. The last thing I remembered was seeing Sasuke suddenly appear and slam the chidori into the man, while I fell into Kakashi's arms.


	32. Choice

"Tsunade!" Kakashi shouted when he burst through the doors of the hospital. Quickly followed by Sasuke. "Stay with me Nariko, that's it you're doing great." Kakashi encourage over and over again. I tried as hard as I could to hold on to Kakashi words because I honestly didn't know what else I could focus on to keep myself alive. I could hear Tsunade around the hall shouting orders to everyone around her. Gently, I felt Kakashi place me down on some kind of bed. After that the only voice I could focus on was Kakashi, who refused to leave my side. I knew I had to hang on to it because it was the only thing that I could think at this moment. It touched my heart to hear all of the empathy in his voice, even after everything I did to him a couple of hours ago. I didn't know how long I had been laying on the operating table for but it seemed to be a while now, my body felt cold and lifeless.

"Kak- Kakashi." I barely managed to stutter out. Instantly Kakashi grabbed onto my hand and held it tight, it was the only piece of warmth I could feel on my cold body.

"I'm here Nariko, I'm here." Kakashi softly whispered back to me. Gently stroking the strands of hair out of my bloody face.

"I'm s-sorry for s-s-slapping you in the l-library, I – I didn't mean it, I s-swear." I forced the words out of my mouth as tears slowly rolled down my strain cheeks.

"Don't speak like that Nariko; you need to save your strength." He stated. Gripping my hand even tighter than before. "You can tell me after this is all over?" He tried to smile but the attempt was useless since it didn't reach his eyes. I tried to smile back but the effort was just too much for me to bear. I could feel my breathing begin to get slower and slower as the effort became too much to keep up with the regular beat. My vision kept bouncing in and out of focus that I sometimes thought I had died. Dead hands seemed to be pulling me harder and harder to the underworld and it was becoming harder to fight back.

"I'm s-sorry Kakashi." I managed to stutter out before the darkness over took.

"No!" The loud cry made Tsunade jump out of concentration. Seeing immediately what was going on she moved her hands from the stomach to the heart and began forcing the heart to beat again. "Please Nariko, keep fighting, I've already lost everyone I can't lose you again." Kakashi desperate cries echo through the room.

Pure light surrounded every inch of the place I was standing in. Was this heaven? I thought to myself as I walked through the place. I was afraid I might walk into a wall any moment but the place just seemed to go on endlessly.

"Nariko." A familiar voice call out from behind me. My whole body froze. I knew that voice, it could only be... Slowly, I turned my body to face the person behind me.

"Mum." Was all I was able to say when I saw her. She looked actually the same, average height with smooth creamy skin, long bright pink hair that fell past her shoulders and glowing green eyes that held a spark of life in them. I ran forward and threw my arms around her. It wasn't an illusion. I cried deeply into her shoulder, while she just patted me on the back and whispered stuff into my ear. "Oh mum, I've missed you." I cried, finally backing up to see her smiling face and wipe away the tears from my eyes.

"I know baby, I've missed you too." She smiled sadly back, holding my hands tightly. "I can't believe you've grown so big." She laughed, as she took in my appearance.

"I guess I did finally lose the baby fat." I laughed with her. Kami I missed this. Just talking to mum and laughing with her. It was good to be able to do this again. "So this is what heavens like is it." I asked, looking around the place again.

"Not exactly." My mother stated, making me stare at her with a confused expression on my face. "This is the in between."

"The in between." I questioned, feeling more confused than ever.

"This means you have a very important decision to make." She voiced calmly like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"What decision?" I asked, surprised I wasn't getting a headache from all of this information that was not making any sense to me at all. Why couldn't things just be easy for once?

"Whether you chose to live or die."

"Three hundred stand by, clear." Tsunade call out again, when shock waves went through Nariko's body, forcing her body to violently jump from the table. Come on Nariko; don't let me down, she thought angrily to her, as she called the order to get ready for another one. Another shock wave went through Nariko's body, sending her body violently through the air. There still no response. As she called out for another order, she quickly peeped at Kakashi. He was still holding her hand tightly, begging and pleading with her to wake up again. Please Nariko, Tsunade shouted inside her head, if you won't do it for me do it for Kakashi.

"If it means staying with your mum then I want to die." I exclaimed, after mum had done some explaining the whole choice between life and death situation. Apparently, this whole in-between thing was because I was some important event in the path of destiny and the decision I made would change thousands of people's lives.

"But honey what about your friends, they would miss you." She expressed sadly. Everyone's face went through my head at that very moment. I would miss them, I thought miserably, especially when Minato face popped into my head.

"It's probably better if I die, that way they wouldn't have to worry with the bad luck I drag everywhere with me." I stated, trying to push the other emotions that were beginning to build up in my chest. Mum began chewing her bottom lip nervously, as if she was deciding if she should tell me something or not.

"Nariko there's something I need to tell you." She finally decided after a while. "Kakashi... he's your father."

"Again clear." Tsunade cried out in a more desperation this time, Nariko body moved violently for a second but there was still no response.

"Lady Tsunade, maybe we should..."

"Don't you even consider finishing that sentence doctor?" She hissed venomously at him, making the doctor flinch. She took one quick look at Kakashi to see that he was still muttering stuff to Nariko, holding her hand tightly and stroking back her long, curly pink hair.

"But Lady Tsunade, we've almost been doing this for an hour." Another doctor spoke out when his colleague failed to push the argument further. An hour, Tsunade attention focused back on the clock. He was right they hand nearly been there for an hour trying to bring Nariko back to life. She forced herself to take a deep breath, so she could control her emotions.

"Ok." She finally gave in. "Time of death twelve thirty-one." She announced, as she put the panels down.

"What? You're giving up!" Kakashi voice cried out when he finally realised what was going on. Sadly Tsunade shook her head to answer him. She could not find the words to say to him right now. "But you can't you have to keep trying." He pleaded with her desperately.

"I'm sorry Kakashi but it's nearly been an hour, there's no way we can bring her back." She tried to state calmly but everyone could hear the sadness in her voice. Tsunade words finally seemed to sink in.

"Get. Out." He struggled to hold in the emotions that were suffocating him at the moment. Tsunade nodded her head to everyone else there, watching everyone leave, except Kakashi, before she left herself. She needed to inform the Hokage.

"Kakashi's my what?" I cried out and nearly fell over when I heard mother utter those words.

"He's your father." She repeated. I stood there in complete shock. Before I could argue with her mother put her hands up too stop me. "Listen Nariko we haven't much time but I want you to know the reason you didn't know him was not his fault, it was mine, I did it to try and save everyone. Your father is a good man. If you should blame anyone it's me. I take full responsibility." After she finished, my mind went completely numb. At least dad wasn't a complete jerk. I thought to myself. But it didn't matter. I was willing to give up everything to be with mum. But something in her eyes told me something different.

"There's more to this then you're telling me isn't there." I finally responded. Mum slowly nodded her head. "People are going to die if I don't go back." I stated. Again mum nodded.

"I'm sorry sweetie I wasn't allowed to tell you." She explained. After that my mind changed.

"I guess I have to go back." I whispered quietly. Despite the fact that I wanted to be with my mum more than anything, I knew I couldn't let innocent people die.

"Do you forgive me?" Mum asked, trying to hold back tears in her eyes.

"There's nothing to forgive." I smiled back and embraced her one last time. "I love you mum."

"I love you too honey."

Kakashi Hatake had lost many people in his life. He had cried at none of them, thinking it was disrespectful to cry over someone who had died a respectable death. But there nothing to stop him from crying over the death of his daughter. He had lost her as a baby and had just gained back. However, fate was a cruel thing and took her away again. Last time Sakura had disappeared with Nariko, he only barely managed to hold on with the support of his friends and knowing that his love and child were still alive. But now, knowing they were both dead he didn't know what too do. How could he go on? He had nothing left worth fighting for.

"I'm sorry. I should of tried harder. I should have been there, while you while growing up." He whispered, leaning his head onto his daughter shoulder. He was still holding her dead lifeless hand. Even though she always seemed to have cold hands there seemed to be a warm touch to them, giving Kakashi an sense of feeling that she wasn't gone yet. "I'm sorry I failed you, can you ever forgive me." He cried, embracing the last moments with his daughter. It many of seemed weird but he was determined to stay with her until every ounce of her warmth was gone. His head flew up when he felt something lightly squeeze his hand. It couldn't be, he thought. But he felt it, he was sure. "Nariko, if you can hear me squeeze my hand again." Kakashi called to her. He stood there for what seemed like a million years before he felt her squeeze his arm again.

Everyone sat in the room in complete silence. It was Three hours ago the illness that everyone had just suddenly disappeared. None of the kids even knew why they were in hospital until their parents had explained everything to them. They all went to meet each other in the main room at the front of the hospital, they where happy to find out that everyone that was close to them was ok but that didn't change the fact that lots of people had died.

"Do you know what released the jutsu dad." Minato asked his father quietly, as he watched his mother continue to give his little brother and sister kisses.

"I've communicated with the four squadrons and asked them to keep searching. Until they get back to me there's nothing we can do expect wait." His fathered answered, smiling at his family. Just as Jiraiya escaped his mothers hold the twins both jumped on him from behind, all of them falling onto the floor and laughing their heads off.

"Uncle Naruto, have you seen our dad?" Jun asked when the boys had stopped laughing. Naruto eyebrows went up, as he quickly searched the room. Sasuke was nowhere in sight. Strange he thought. Maybe he was still following Nariko around her shift. At that moment he could see Tsunade approach him through the crowd.

"Tsunade, where's Nariko and Sasuke, shouldn't they be down here right now." He asked. A shocked expression appeared on her face.

"I was just about to ask you if you had seen Nariko." She replied. At that moment everything froze between the adults and Minato.

"Where's Nariko?" Jiraiya asked, since he and the twins had been too busy play fighting to hear what they had said. A loud bang should from the entrance and Kakashi came running in, carrying someone. He was closely followed by Sasuke

"Tsunade!" Kakashi cried. Tsunade ran forward shouting orders to the doctors and nurses. It was all a blur, as Tusnade, the doctors and Kakashi ran off to the emergency room. But everyone saw the pink hair and all the blood.

It had been two hours they had all waited. All of them sent prayers to Kami in hopes that Nariko would be ok. But it all seemed in vain, since Naruto only brought back bad news. A shionbi wasn't meant to show his emotions. But the children weren't actually ninjas yet, so the room was full of crying children, even little Jin seemed to understand what was going on and was crying hard. The boys and Nene did everything the could to help their parents comfort their siblings but even they were having trouble controlling their own emotions, especially Minato. For the second time that day doors burst open and a doctor ran in.

"This better be good or I'll send you flying through the next three walls." Tsunade shouted at the doctor.

"Lady Tsunade, I can't believe what I'm about to say but it's a miracle..."

"Spit it out man." Tsunade snapped, annoyed at his continuous babbling.

"The girl, Nariko. She's alive!"

When Kakashi felt her squeeze his hand he instantly shouted for a doctor. A doctor had come in quickly to see what the man was yelling about. He mouthed dropped when he saw the girl breathing, just to make sure he ran to her and checked her pulse. Yep, there was defiantly a pulse there. He ran off to get Lady Tsunade. Kakashi had barely notice the man had come and gone. He was too busy watching his daughter breath, something he thought he would never see again. It seemed fate was not so cruel after all. His eyes widen when she slowly open her eyes.

"Dad." She whispered before she fell into unconsciousness again.


	33. The story

A near death experience takes a lot out of a person, especially if they did actually die for over an hour and then suddenly back to life. It took me five days to open my eyes for brief amounts of time, when I was able to eat some food my strength started to return slowly. Kakashi had been there for the whole time when I was in hospital, which I felt grateful for since I knew Kakashi hated hospitals. Minato was there a lot as well, along with the Uzumakis and Uchiha's (except Sasuke) and then Nene. I kept getting all these thank you's, which I kept denying. Then Tsunade had to make it worse and say it was because of me that more children were alive and finding out what was causing it, so I should accept the thanks. I would just growl in response and give up. If that wasn't the worse of it, I then got flowers and cards from people who I didn't know thanking me, I would reply with thanks but always put at the end that the cards should be sent to Lady Tsunade.

"Won't you just embrace the goodness you've done for once?" Kakashi smirked, when I was just finished off writing another letter.

"No, not really." I replied sarcastically, continuing to write the letter.

"So? How did you know that I was your father?" It was so shuttle that I hadn't really realised what his question was about, until it took it's time to set in. The paper and pen dropped out of my hand.

"What! How did you-? I couldn't finish the sentence since I was just so confused. There was a little laugh from behind Kakashi mask.

"I thought you might have forgotten about you waking up and calling me dad." Kakashi stated and placed his book back in his pouch. "So are you going to explain how you knew?" His question went over and over in my mind. To be honest I still didn't quite believe that Kakashi was my father, it just seemed so impossible. Not to mention the idea where I got the information from was just – bizarre. But how else was I going to explain it. Sighing to myself, I told Kakashi about the whole in-between experience and that it was mum that told me. Kakashi just sat and listened, until I finished. He didn't say anything for a while. I was pretty sure he was going to call the guys that give away the free straight jacket and take me off to happy land.

"Well that's one way to find out." Kakashi answered. I was surprised that my mouth didn't fell open with shock but I guess I was getting used to everyone giving me weird answers. There was a weird silence between us, for a moment I wasn't sure what to say, until the question I had been dreading to ask popped into my head.

"So, you going to explain what life was like before and after I was born?" I asked, playing nervously with my hair. Kakashi just smiled and made himself more comfortable.

"You might want to make yourself a comfortable, it's a long story." He smiled. I took his advice and fluff the pillows behind me before settling into them and began to listen to Kakashi tale.

Let's see. Well, for one thing, I can assure you that you weren't a one night stand or something like that. In fact your mother and I were very much in love. It took me a while to gather up the courage to ask her out, I had fallen in love with Sakura for a long time but I was worried because I was her ex-sensei and there was a fourteen year age gap between us. She was only 17 at the time and I had just turned 31. To be honest, I never planned to ask her out, until one night at Naruto and Hinata's engagement party when I had a little too much and let it slipped out that I was in love with her. Anyway, long story short one thing lead to another and the next thing I knew she was moving into my apartment. I had made it clear on our first date that I didn't want children because I was worried with my history of losing someone I loved, especially if they were half me. Sakura agreed because she was worried about rising up children in a ninja world like ours. I began to get worried when everyone around us was starting up families because I was worried that Sakura would feel left out but she seemed fine, so I just thought I was overacting. We had been living happily for two years, until one day I had come home early from a mission and found Sakura crying on the couch.

"What's wrong Sakura?" I asked, sitting down beside her and wrapped my arms around her. She leaned forward to grab something off the coffee table and handed it to me. I wasn't sure what it was until I saw the positive mark on the white plastic.

"You're not ..." I could not find the words to finish the sentence. She could only nod. "Have you tried going to abortion client or something?" I knew she didn't need to answer that because her body suddenly stiffen.

"I've tried. Three times." She cried. My head was starting to hurt with confusion because all these questions started popping up in my head. "I sorry Kakashi but I couldn't do it." After that a big argument broke out between us. We both said stuff we shouldn't have said. We didn't realise we had been making such a racket that one of the neighbours had gone to the police to inform them of the argument but bumped into Naruto instead. So it didn't take long for Naruto to appear at our front door.

"What the hell is going on?" He shouted. It was only then that we had realised that he was actually there. Sakura suddenly burst out crying and ran into the bedroom. I and Naruto both stood there frozen in confusion. It was Naruto who acted first. He walked into the bedroom to see if he could calm her down. All I could do was collapse into the chair and tried to get my head straight. Minutes later Naruto and Sakura came out of the room, Naruto had a bag sling over his shoulder. I didn't even try to stop them as they walked out of the house because I knew I would only make things worse. Four months past. I had only left the house to stay fit and had been trying to avoid everyone. The only person who tried to see me was Naruto but I would turn the music up, so I couldn't hear him when he stood outside the door, trying to convince me to talk to him. I had been growing deeper and deeper into depression. One day I got really bored of reading my Icha Icha books and in frustration I threw them at the wall. It hit one of the selves on the wall, knocking all the books. I bent over to pick the books up when a picture fell out of the books. It was a picture of me and Sakura, holding a baby Minato. I couldn't help but think we looked really happy with the baby. I suddenly began to think, maybe having a mini me or Sakura would be a nice thing. After a few moments of thinking I had decided I was going to win Sakura back and raise a family with her, after that thought I quickly left. I was nearly near Naruto's place, trying to think what to say to her when a loud explosion came from the distance. It sounded like it came from Naruto's. Instantly, I ran full speed over the rooftops. My theory was right; as I approached I could see black smoke rising from Naruto's place. Another explosion went off. I pushed up my headband to reveal my sharingan, so I could get a better look. I could see six Naruto clones fighting off other ninjas, all of them had headbands with scratches through them, showing me they were rogue ninja. I suddenly saw a seventh Naruto appear from the smoke trying to push someone back. My eyes grew wide with shock. It was Madara! But it couldn't be. He was supposed to be dead. Two puffs of smoke caught my attention, looking away from Madara I saw two of Naruto clones disappear. The two rogue ninja's fighting took their chance to disappear into the smoke. Naruto saw this and dashed in behind them, Madara not far behind. I made myself ran faster and jumped into the smoke after them. That's when I saw a heavily pregnant Sakura for the first time, holding Minato in one arm and a kunai in the after. I was in shock for a second, until the clash of metal caught my attention. Naruto was fighting three rogue ninja by himself but one of the escaped his guard and headed towards Sakura. I quickly summoned a chidori in my palm and attacked the ninja. He was caught by surprise, he didn't stand a chance. I threw myself into battle alongside Naruto. In the end Madara and his cronies had to retreat because we could sense back up coming. We tried to stop them but Madara used some kind of teleportation jutsu for him and his men to disappear. No one was happy to see me –except Naruto- since the indicted everyone wanted to tear my guts out.

"What are you doing here Kakashi?" Sasuke demanded, I didn't expect anything less from Sasuke (ever since he had reconnected with Naruto and Sakura he felt very protective of them.)

"I ...uummmm..." Was all I could come up with for a reply. Since I had a feeling that it didn't matter what I came here for, I was going to get my butt kicked.

"Kakashi." I heard Sakura whisper behind me, turning around I saw her standing next to Naruto, one arm still holding Minato and the other wrapped protectively around her belly.

"Hey Sakura, how are you and the baby doing?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment.

"We're both a bit shocked but fine. You?" She answered. That was Sakura for you. Always kind and polite even if she hated your guts.

"Fine." I replied, looking at everyone's faces to see their faces getting angrier for actually talking to her, especially Tsunade and Sasuke.

"Can I talk with Kakashi in private please?" Sakura spoke, giving Minato to Naruto and dragging me off further into the house. What was left of it anyway? She dragged me into the spare bedroom. "What are you doing here Kakashi?" She demanded, finally on the defensive. I took a deep breath before I explained myself.

"Sakura I've been an idiot and I realised over the past couple of days that I miss you and I actually like the idea of little people like me and you running around," I paused quickly to take a deep breath "What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry and I love you and I want to have a family with you." After I had finished I watched Sakura closely, she displayed no emotion her face which was making nervous. I pretty sure there was going to be another hole in Naruto's apartment in the minute, I kept repeating to myself over and over again. Suddenly, Sakura slapped me around the face.

"Ooowww." I yelled, rubbing my red cheek.

"That's for taking so long to realise that you dummy." She snapped at me. "And this..." I covered my face with my arms, thinking she was going to slap me again but instead I felt her slim arms wrap around my body "is for finally realising." She whispered into my chest. I put my arms around her and pulled her closer to me.

"I'm sorry." I whispered in her ear, as we clung to each other.

A few months past and everything seemed to be returning back to normal. In our relationship anyway, the only difference in it was I always running around, trying as hard as I could to fulfil her needs. However, Madara and his cronies seemed to appear every few days to attack. The only thing we could establish from the attacks was that Sakura and the baby were the targets. For what purposes we still don't know. One day after we had dropped the kids off at the Hyuga mansion, we were all talking to each other when Ino suddenly called for us to see out of the window. When we looked out we saw a lunar eclipse. It was very rare to see an eclipse, since they only appeared in Konohagakure every ten thousand years. We stood by the window and watched.

"Kakashi." Sakura's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Hm." I asked, still watching the eclipse.

"My water just broke." I was stupid enough to not realising what she was talking about until I looked down on the floor and saw a big puddle of water there.

"Shit!" It was the only thing I could say at that moment. My shout made everyone turn to look at us and began to realise the situation.

"Well don't just stand there people let's move." Tsunade ordered, going into full medic mode. Hinata, Temari and Ino were the next people to react and started helping Sakura towards the bedroom. I was the next one to react and began following them to the bedroom when a loud crash stopped me. I turned to see Madara and what seemed like thousands of rogue ninja's smash through the windows and began a fall scale invasion in Naruto's living room, which we had only just fixed up. Kami! Not today. I thought; as I took a kunai from my pouch and killed the first two rogue ninjas who tried to get to Sakura. After that everything's a blur. I just remember being torn between being with your mother and killing every asshole that was there. At first it seemed hopeless since it was nine men, plus one woman (Me, Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Sai, Yamato, Neji and Tenten) against thousands. Naruto summon hundreds of clones which gave us a better advantage but what shocked us the most was that thousands of Leaf shinobi suddenly appeared and began fighting with us. It was hard but after killing hundreds of the enemy Madara finally pulled his troops back. To our surprise there weren't as many casualties as we were predicting. Everyone was helping the wounded together and seeing who was injured, when a cry broke through the atmosphere. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of where the wailing was coming from. Later Tsunade came walking down the hall, it was clear that she was exhausted but very excited at the same time.

"Congrats Kakashi! You have a healthy and very beautiful baby girl." She smiled. As soon as she said it I ran past her and into the spare bedroom. I froze at the door way when I saw a very tired looking Sakura, holding something wrapped into a pink towel.

"Well don't just stand there Kakashi! Go to them." Temari snapped behind me, making me move towards them. Sakura suddenly looked up and noticed me for the first time, smiling she handle the bundle towards me.

"Would you like to hold her?" She beamed at me. Slowly, I took the bundle and wrapped my arms around it. That's when I saw you for the first time. I held my breath as I stared down at you, you were so tiny back then, and I honestly couldn't believe it. Using one of my arms to support you I used my finger to push the towel back further to see you face. I realised two things then. One was that you had the most adorable pink curls I had ever seen and two you had an iron grip when you grabbed my finger in one of your small hands.

"How could someone so small be so strong?" I spoke out randomly. While I was holding you a thought popped into my head. "I'm going to need a lot more training." I said, looking at Sakura this time.

"Kakashi, I've just given birth to your daughter and all you can think about is more training." She tutted, holding her arms out again, so she could take you back.

"Of course." I replied, regrettably handing you back to her. "How else am I going to keep all of the boys off her when she becomes a teenager?" I smiled, earning a laugh from Sakura.

"Don't mention the t-word just yet Kakashi." She smiled. I sat on the bed next to her and wrapped my arm around her. "We did such a great job Kakashi." Sakura whispered in my ear before kissing me on the cheek. I could only nod and lean my head against hers, as we watched you. I don't know how long we had just been staring at you for but we soon heard someone cough at the door.

"Do I not get to see my little niece then?" Naruto called from the door when we both looked up. We could see that everyone was hovering outside the door. We beckon everyone in so we could show you off. Even one of the other shinobi, who I knew only through work poke his head to look. After seeing you in our hands he shouted back out to everyone else.

"Everyone that has or is going to have male children better watch out cause that baby in there is going to knock them all off their feet. Plus tell them to beware of Kakashi as well." Everyone began laughing at his statement.

"Thanks for passing the warn – I mean the message on." I shouted back, before returning my attention back to you. Then Guy came in took one look at you and went on a long speech about beautiful youth.

"So what you going to call her?" Hinata suddenly asked, making Guy shut up. I turned my head towards Sakura, giving her the encouragement to tell them.

"Well," She started, shifting herself slightly. "Her middle names going to be Tsunade..." She stopped and we both took a quick look to see Tsunade face. We were a bit worried cause we thought she was going to faint any second but she seemed to snap herself out of it just in time. "And her first name is going to be Nariko in honour of Naruto, Ino and Sasuke." She finished off, looking at a confused and shocked Naruto, Ino and Sasuke.

"Trust us when we say it took us forever to merge you names together." I added, so they could see how the name was all related to them, as the day went on lots of people poked their heads in to wish us congrats. But I think the most special was when Lord Hyuga brought the children over.

"Auntie Sakura!" Nene and Itachi cried, as they ran up to the bed.

"Hello little one's" Sakura laughed back at them. She gave you to me, so I could bend onto the floor and let the kids see you. I looked up to see Minato still hiding behind his grandfather.

"Don't you want to see Nariko, Minato?" I smiled at him. He nodded his head and he slowly walked towards us. When he finally made it over he took one look at the bundle and blushed. "Don't you think she's beautiful?" I asked him.

"Nariko is very beautiful." For a moment, everyone went into shock since everyone had been trying to convince Minato to talk for ages.

"Oh my Kami, Naruto he said his first word." She yelled out excitedly, running over to Minato and cuddling the poor kid to death.

"I believe he said his first sentence as well." Naruto smiled proudly.

Six months past and you had just began to learn how to crawl, making things more difficult for me and your mother, since we already had enough trouble, stopping you from trying to escape from us and that was before you were crawling. No attacks had come for Madara or any of the other Akatsuki members. But there was still a bit of tension in the air. One night we were celebrating Naruto be announced Hokage, it was too late to return home, so Hinata and Naruto set up a nursery to put all of the children in. I think out of all of the children you and Shikaku were the only ones willing to go to sleep. The rest Goro and Minato were play fighting with each other while Nene and Itachi were talking to each other non-stop. We almost got everyone to bed, except Itachi who refused to go to sleep.

"You guys go on; I'll have Itachi in bed in the minute." She said, turning back to Itachi and added "hopefully" All of us had to suppress a snigger when we were about to leave, when something crashed through the floorboards. I don't know how to explain its appearance but let me tell you it was ugly. It turned it head towards the children and went straight for you. I remember Ino leaping forward and grabbing you out of your crib and just barely dodging the monster. The next bit about to tale you might sound weird but when the monster went for you again you started to glow sliver and suddenly this light appeared and the demon disappeared. Even after the thing disappeared you were still glowing. We were still shocked about it even after a few days. Then one day I wake up with Sakura gone. I thought at first that she had gone to the hospital to do an early morning shift, so I went to check on you since it was about time for your feeding but when I looked into the crib and found you I panicked. I almost jumped out of the window in pursuit when I saw the note on the chest of draws. It said that your mother had taken you away to safety and she wasn't going to tell anyone where she was going because she didn't want anyone to get hurt. I instantly teleported to the Hokage office and it didn't take us long to send out search teams. But your mother had covered up her tracks too well and we found it impossible to find. There was nothing we could do accept pray you were both safe and maybe one day return back to us.


	34. Happy Birthday

Everything was strange nowadays. Some things reminded the same and others had changed dramatically. I still had to change houses every week and everyone I knew acted the same around me, even Kakashi acted the same even though there was a big difference between our relationships now. I guess he was still trying to adjust to being a father again. However, when we went on the streets I was always approached by children and adults giving me flowers and thanks. The ones that were too shy to approach just bowed as I walked past. I tried to get them to stop but it seemed that they just ignore me and continued doing it.

"Here you go Nariko." Hamako smiled as she handed me a wrapped parcel. I hadn't realised that Hamako was handing me something until she nudged me with it.

"Huh, oh sorry Hamako did you say something?" I asked, snapping out of my daydream. A small frown appeared on Hamako face.

"You need to open your birthday present." She spoke, forcing the present under my nose. Huh! Birthday presents? Why was Hamako giving me a birthday present? I tried to process the information through my head. My birthday was August the first, today is... Wait! What day is it today?

"Hamako, what day is it today?" I questioned.

"It's August the first silly, your birthday." She laughed back. Oh, was all I could think at that moment.

"500 yen, says she forgotten it's her birthday." Goro spoke out suddenly, finishing a large spoonful of pancake.

"I second that bet." Itachi added, earning a kick from me under the table. "Oooowwww!" He hissed when my foot connected with his ankle. He gave me evil glares, which I immediately shot back, sticking my tongue out to add to the effect.

"Well, it doesn't matter because now she knows." Minato said, coming to my rescue. I sent him a look of gratitude before turning back to Itachi and sticking my tongue out again.

"Well, since she knows now I think it's the perfect time to give Nariko her presents." Hinata added, as she walked out of the room along with Naruto. More presents! Nariko thought to herself. Before she could think this any further Hinata came back through the door with Naruto following her in with a whole load of presents in his arms. Nariko froze in shock. That was a load of presents.

"Happy Birthday, Nariko!" Everyone at the table shouted out when Naruto placed all of the presents in front of me. I could do nothing but just stare at the huge pile in front of me.

"Nariko, you're supposed to open the presents, not stare at them." Minato stated beside me. I shook my head to clear my mind of the daze out of my head.

"Sorry I'm just not used to that amount of presents." I managed to stutter out after my mind was a bit clearer. Before anyone to say any more, Hamako insisted that I opened hers first, I took the present and carefully un-wrapped the paper. Inside the box was a soft fabric. Please don't be a dress, I pleaded, while I unfolded the material. Thankfully it wasn't it was a bright red scarf; it was simple but well made. "Oh it's beautiful Hamako." I told her, kissing the top of her forehead and wrapping the scarf around my neck. It felt so soft against my skin. Everyone ushered me to open the rest of the presents. When I had finished I had a new photo frame book to place all of my pictures in, a camera, some new clothes, a new perfume (it came from Sayrui believe it or not) and some new books. "Thanks guys, this really means a lot." I smiled, giving everyone a hug.

"You're going to have a lot more at the party tonight." Hamako cheered, making me freeze half way through a hug I was giving Minato. Did she just say party? In that case I'll be jumping out the window, I thought as I turned to go and jump out of one but just as I turned around Minato grabbed me and pulled me back.

"Oh no you don't we've been planning this party for weeks." Minato grinned. I tried to pull away but Minato grip was too firm. Besides half of me felt like melting into him because I could feel his firm muscles against my back. No! Stop thinking like that Nariko! I told myself, as I made another attempt to get free. Which, again was a failure because I was no closer to jumping out that window then before.

"You do realise that every time I got to a party something always bad happens." I asked, hoping the people would remember and cancel the party. Again, wasn't going to happen.

"Oh come on Nariko, Gaara and his family are coming all the way from Suna to celebrate you becoming a young woman. Don't you think it would be rude for you not to show up and let them come all the way for nothing?" Minato stated. A part of me actually became excited about the party now because I did want to see Gaara and his family again. Sighing to myself I nodded.

"All right, I'll go. But don't say I didn't warn you." I warned, trying to sound like I was serious but it must not have worked because everyone roared out laughing.

I stood in the mirror looking at myself in the mirror for the hundredth time. Nene had brought me a beautiful white dress that was strapless and stopped two inches above my knees. The dress showed off my toned, curvy figure and made my skin seemed creamier then the ghostly pale like it usually looked. Nene had convince me to wear sliver heels (which I didn't mind because they made me seem taller) and to wear my hair down, showing off its soft thickness and the amount of curls I had in it.

"Would you stop looking at yourself and get your butt over here, so I can put make up on you now." Nene argued from the other side of the room, who was wearing a lilac dress that really brought out her eyes. I wasn't looking forward to putting make up on, since I knew nothing about putting the stuff on. Regrettably, I dragged myself over to Nene and sat down at the small table she had set up with cosmetics. It was only one night, I kept telling myself, as Nene began her processes. She started off placing glittery power on my face; then some other type of slivery powder called eye shadow, and then applied eye liner and mascara, just as she was finishing off her my 'lipstick' a sudden knock came from the door. I was just about to shut out come in when Nene suddenly slap her mouth over mine. "What do you want Minato?" Nene shouted out the door. On the inside my hurt was doing somersaults because I could feel his chakra outside the door. On the outside I was giving Nene glares for slapping me really hard around the mouth; because it did really hurt.

"I was wondering if it was possible I could speak to Nariko for a minute." Minato's voice echoed through the door.

"Wait a sec, I'm almost done." Nene called back, as she resumed back to finishing off my lipstick and blusher. I was expecting Minato to walk away any moment but I could feel him waiting out here the whole time.

"Ok Minato you can come in now." Nene called out and whispered to me "I'll see you at the party". When Minato walked in, Nene quickly dashed out. Minato watched her go with complete confusion on his face before turning to me and letting his jaw drop. Even though I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable with the way he was staring at me, I could help but feel a little bit of pride swell up as well; knowing Nene had done a good job.

"Are you all right Minato?" I asked, trying to hold back the laughter that threatened to escape any second. This seemed to snap Minato out of his daze, as he shook his head.

"Yeah, sorry about that it's just..." He paused, as if he was about to say something but decided against it.

"Just what Minato?" I questioned playfully, as I walked over to him only stopping about half a step away from him. I could feel Minato's breath quicken, as I took that one last step the made our bodies touch.

"It's just you look so beautiful tonight." Minato managed to utter out in the end. Communing sense finally kicked in at that point, forcing me to take a large step back. What the hell was that all about? I asked myself.

"Was there something you wanted to ask me?" I quickly uttered out, trying to focus our conversation in a different direction.

"I wanted to give you this." He stated, looking like he was back to his normal self again, as he handed me a little black box. "Happy Birthday, Nariko." He smiled as I took it. I carefully took of the lid and nearly dropped the box when I saw what was inside it. Inside lay a beautiful sliver heart shaped locket, decorated with diamonds and sapphires. I gently picked up the sliver chain and examined it closer. The detail was so defined and simple; it was just so ... perfect.

"Oh Minato thank you." I smiled, as I turned to face the mirror and held the locket up, so I could see what I looked like with it. "Can you help me put it on?" I asked.

"Sure." Minato replied, as he walked up behind me. Taking the necklace from my hands he fastens it to the back of my neck, when he finished his hand brushed the back of my neck, sending a shiver down my back.

"Thank you." I whisper. Before anything else could be said the door burst open and Hamako rushed into the room.

"Nariko! The party started ten minutes ago, let's go." She demanded, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room. I and Minato both laughed as we made our way out of the room.

Half an hour past and nothing bad had happened yet. I was happy to see Gaara and his family again; especially when I saw Yasunari walk off to talk to Hamako and offered her a dance on the dance floor. At that moment I swear everyone went 'aaaaawwwww' when they saw those two blushing and dancing together. I was sneaking food from the banquet table to the twins and Jiraiya, who were hiding under one of the table on the other side of the room because they had accidently spilt their drinks over Sayrui when they were playing some kind of drinking game, when I felt someone tapping me on the shoulder.

"Happy Birthday kiddo." Kakashi smiled, as he handed me a present.

"I was worried that you weren't going to show up." I laughed, as I took the present from his hands.

"I wouldn't miss your sixteenth birthday for the world." He answered, as he watched me tear the wrapping paper off. Inside revealed a new set of art pencils and paint set and the expansive kind too.

"Kakashi this is the coolest present ever, how did you know I would want a new set?" I questioned because no one knew about my whole art ability and I desperately needed a new art set because my pencils were the size of a tooth pick and I had run out of blue and white paint.

"I always see you drawing in that notebook of yours and I've seen those poor pencils you used, they need a break." He joked. I gave him a half-hearted punch on the arm and then hugged him.

"Thanks dad, this means a lot." I thanked him, before I released him.

"Thanks for what." Kakashi asked, I almost laughed at his not knowingness.

"For everything, for showing up for my birthday, for the awesome present, for not being the jerk dad that I always thought you might be... no offense." I paused quickly, to make sure Kakashi was following what I was saying and not being offended by the last remark I made, "and for making great pancakes. I mean there not actually Hinata quality but they're still really tasty." Kakashi stood there shocked for a few moments before smiling and embracing each other into another hug.

"Thanks Nariko, I'm glad to hear that, especially that I'm not a jerk." Kakashi smiled even bigger. "However, I don't like the idea that Hinata pancakes are better than mine." He complained a little.

"I wouldn't worry about it dad. No one can compare to Hinata's pancakes dad." I cheered, as we stopped hugging. I was so glad that Kakashi was my dad because we both weren't use to the whole father/daughter relationship thing and Kakashi was being really supportive about it.

"Hey where did you get that necklace from?" Kakashi observed, finally spotting the new piece of jewellery on my neck.

"Oh, this, Minato gave it to me as a birthday present." I point to Minato who was on the other side of the room talking to Sayrui again. Some kind of emotion flared up in me a second when I saw them and only disappeared when I forced myself to look away and suppress it.

"Oh I see." Kakashi smirked, like he knew some kind of secret. I was considering if I should ask him about it but decided to go and give the boys their food instead.

I ran into my room and started dancing around a little with pure happiness. I had done it. I had survived one party without getting my dress ruined or anything bad happening. I was packing some stuff to take over to Nene's house since I'm meant to be going over there tomorrow anyway and Nene had asked if I wanted to have a sleepover at her house after the party. Suddenly, a shock wave of some else's chakra zapped through me and before I could react someone grabbed me from behind and placed some kind of cloth over my mouth. I didn't have a chance to fight back or cry for help because as soon as the cloth was placed over my mouth, everything went black.


	35. The sheild breaks down

I was hoping what had happen had just been a nightmare and that Hamako would come in any second, jumping on my head and demanding that I'll do her hair. Instead I woke up with a really bad headache; like something was trying to break itself out of my skull. But it was when the headache subsided a little and my vision cleared and saw who was standing above me, was when the reality of the situation finally occurred to me.

"Daitaro!" I hissed with venom pouring out of every fibre in my body. Fighting against the chains that held me down, I tried to reach out and kill him but my bonds refused to let me budge and I couldn't summon any of my chakra. All I could do was just give him death glares at that moment.

"Hello Nariko, nice of you to wake up." He smirked, as his fingers moved along the edges of my body. His touch felt like poison; slowly moving its way through my body. I wanted with all my might to slap his filthy hands away from me but ordered my body to stay still; so he wouldn't think it was having any effect on me. I refused to even look at him, which was hard when you can't move your head and he is the only thing standing in my line of eyesight. This sucks, Nariko thought to herself, at the same time a door slammed open somewhere in the room. Daitaro disappeared from my eyesight to check who had entered. "Hello father, how are you?" He asked. I didn't need my aura reading skills to know that despite Daitaro'a act; he didn't like his father.

"Our guest is finally awake." He stated, ignoring his son completely and walked up to the other side of the bed. The man looked like he was in his seventies, with one of his eyes and arm bandaged and was holding a cane in the other. I instantly felt like I should fear this man but refused to show it. "I hope you are finding yourself comfortable." The man smirked above me. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the stupid question.

"Don't worry, I'll fill in a complaint card when I get out of here," I replied "and I will get out of here." I made sure the last bit didn't sound like a joke because I was going to get out of here. One way or another. The man only laughed at my serious attempts.

"Despite what you might think my dear, I'm afraid we can't let you go." He answered, making some kind of hand gesture to Daitaro. Daitaro instantly left the room. Well that's one dick head gone, I thought to myself, as I focused my attention back on the other guy. The old man just stared at me for a long time before he began talking to me again. "You have no idea don't you." He spoke, it sounded more like a thought he was saying out loud then a question.

"Know what?" I demanded anyway. If I had to stay here, I might as well find out what these crooks (and that's saying it nicely) have been trying to kidnap me.

"How powerful you are?" He answered, stopping at the other end of the table. "Do you want to know why you have these special abilities?" I admit, as soon as he said I was a little bit interested because I had always wanted to know why I could talk to ghosts and no one else could. Besides, I did say that if I was going to be forced to stay here I was going to find out why.

"Dude I think everyone I've met has wanted an answer to that question." I point out. I know I want to find out but I didn't want to sound eager. I prepared myself mentally, as the man began to explain.

"There is a legend that a child born under a lunar eclipse with the blood of the last Hatake and a descendant of the Tsukino clan, will be bless with the power to connect with all worlds, their mission is to protect the portals that keep the worlds separate and maintain the balance between them." He paused, for a second and slowly walked up beside me, so we could get a good look at each other's faces. "Do you see where I am going with this?" He asked, his cold dark eye sending cold chills down my spine.

"You think I'm that child." I stated. I wanted to come up with some sarcastic comment to piss him off and deny that I'm the child in the prophecy but I had to admit; being born under a lunar eclipse and my dad being the last Hatake didn't actually help my argument that much.

"I don't think, I know." The man sneered, as he continued to walk around the table. His constant walking was starting to make me think that he was taunting me in some way, like he was trying to show that he had some kind of power over me because he could walk and I couldn't. I swear I'm going to kick your ass when I get out of these chains, I thought to myself, as I continued to glare at him. "The abilities you have now are only the icing on the cake. You have the ability to do so much more. Even control demons." My body froze. Control demons? I don't like the sound of that, I worried to myself. This whole situation better not be based on me working for them and helping them take over the world with an army of demons or something, because I'm not in the mood. "That's why we need you my dear; we need you to help us conquer Konohagakure by helping us control the demons in our army." When he said it I rolled my eyes again. Ok, so maybe he didn't want to take over the world - just Konohagakure – but everything else I thought of before he said it was right.

"Thanks but I'm not interested." I snapped back at him. The man only laughed at my efforts to hate him.

"You have no choice." He smirked, an evil glint sparkled in his dark eye. "I have created a powerful genjutsu that allows me to have complete control over a person's mind." I laughed at his attempt to scare me.

"For someone that's been doing their research, you sure are stupid." I taunted, as I felt confidence growing inside my chest. "No genjutsu has ever worked on me." I guess I was being a little over confident at this point because the next thing he said next sent icy shockwaves through my body.

"I know." He admitted, shifting his body so our faces were only inches away from each other. "That's why I'm determined to break that mental shield of yours first." His mouth shifted into an uneasy smile that was scaring me a little bit. He turned away suddenly and walked out of the room. I was left there by myself feeling a little scared. Well whatever plan he's got it's not going to work, I deliberated with myself, I won't let him control me and force me to take over Konohagakure. I won't. The door swung open again and a man that looked a little like a tooth pick walked him. He was so thin that you could see most of his bones and was very tall; could have been taller if he didn't have a slumped posture.

"It's time to have some fun." The man grinned, as he unrolled the bag he was carrying to reveal a number of different size knives. Oh shit, was all I could think of.

I don't know how many days past but they were the worst of my life. Day after day I had to watch myself being cut open and watch as most of my organs would be destroyed then repaired again. I don't know how much more I can take, I cried silently to myself, trying to force my attention on to something accept on what was in front of me. No! I had to stay strong, I thought to myself. The others are coming for me: Minato, Dad, Naruto, Nene and Itachi, they'll save me; I know they will. I had to keep forcing myself to remember it because of an interesting conversation I overheard the bandaged man say.

_It had been over two weeks of torture I had suffered a lot and had just blacked out from another one of Sticks torturing techniques. I was just coming back around when I heard voices._

"_Why is it taken so long?" The guy demand, I knew it was the guy with the cane because I recognised his voice. He sounded like he was in a really bad mood. _

"_I'm sorry my lord Danzo but she is stronger than we thought." The other man tried to plead. There were a few moments of silence, until Danzo spoke again._

"_The only way we can break through that shield is through her will. I don't care what methods you use as long as she breaks." I could hear the shuffling of feet and cane walking away and slamming the door behind them._

A stab of pain ran through my body and I screamed out in agony. I don't know what happened next but the next thing I knew I was floating in the air looking down on myself. I watched as Stick grabbed his electric panels; placing them on my chest and sent a shockwave through my body. Looking around I could see I was back in my body again. Well that was weird, I pondered to myself, as Stick fixed me up again from another torturing session. When he left I began to think. What had just happened? I thought to myself, as I repeated the scene in my head again. Is it possible I could do it again? I knew it sounded stupid but I was desperate. Forcing my body to relax I released all attachments I had to this room and the earth. I was beginning to think it wasn't working until I felt my body float into the air. Strange but it's better than nothing, I laughed to myself, as I looked down on my sleep form below me. I sighed to myself as I watched the peacefully sleeping form below me. Now if only I could get out of here. Before I had time to ponder on this question I found myself flying upwards, different rooms flashed past my eyes blurring all together, the next thing I saw was the open sky. This can't be real and yet it was. I thought I might wake up any second but I could feel the fresh air against my skin, even though I'm not in my body. Recognition struck me like a thunder bolt, as I began to absorb in the surroundings around me. I remembered I stayed here with my mother when I was quite young. It was a mountain that marked the bordered between the land of sound and the land of fire. Well, this is either complete coincide or my luck is starting to change, I smiled to myself, now I have to consider how long it's going to take to get home. I started thinking of Kakashi and wondered if he and everyone else were ok. The next thing I knew I was zooming over the landscape, I couldn't see much except all of the greenery blurring together. I had to admit despite the weirdness of it all, this was actually pretty cool. Before I could reflect on this anymore I found myself inside dad's apartment. I get it now; I deliberated with myself as I began to search the rooms to see if anyone was home, when I think of a place I automatically travelled to that place, that's cool. Searching the rooms I found many things had changed. The always messy bed was made up and looked like it hadn't been slept in for weeks, the always full fridge was empty with out of date vegetables and the always neat training room was completely covered in maps and scrolls that contained searching jutsu's. Where is he? I began to worry to myself. The calendar caught my attention. I ignored the funny picture of the scarecrow that hung on the wall and stared at the date. The latest white square to have an x in it was September the tenth. I've been freaking tortured for over a month, I cried out. I knew dad was searching for me because the evidence was all around the apartment, so I couldn't give up hope. Before I could concentrate any further the door burst door and a barking brown flash enter the room.

"Coco!"I cried out in joy, for a second I forgot that I was some type of ghost thing and attempted to pick Coco up, making my hands go right through him. Coco continued to bark at me but he wasn't doing like I was a burglar but as if he was trying to tell someone that I was here.

"Coco! What the hell has gotten into to you?" Kakashi demanded, as he walked through the door. I winced as I saw the dark purple bags hanging from Kakashi's eyes and his defying gravity hair was even messier then usual. Coco ignored and continued to bark at me.

"Dad, Dad, it's me Nariko!" I tried calling to him but he just continued to try and stop Coco from barking. I tried again but it seemed the only person (or animal) who could see me was Coco. "Daddy please." I begged, as I could feel tears forming in my eyes –despite the fact I was a ghost- I had never call Kakashi daddy before but I could feel my defensive shields breaking down as I tried to talk to him. Seconds later the door creaked again and in came eight other dogs.

"Coco, what are you..." He paused and started sniffing the air. All of the other dogs seemed to have frozen as well as they stared in my direction. Kakashi seemed to catch this, even in his tired state.

"Pakkun what's wrong?" He questioned, as he started pulling a kunai out of his pocket.

"Kakashi I don't know how to tell you this but..." He paused, as he considered if he should go on or not. "I can sense Nariko in this room." All of the other dogs nodded in agreement with what Pakkun had said, while Kakashi eyebrows had started to rise half way up his head. After a while Kakashi turned into the direction that Coco was still growling in.

"Nariko." Kakashi whispered, reaching his hand out towards me. Even though I knew it was stupid because my hand would just go through his I reached out to touch his hand as well. But something else happened; something amazing. As soon as I touched his hand a bright light appeared and an electric shock went up my hand. "Nariko." Kakashi cried out again. I couldn't see what I looked like but from what I could tell from my arms and legs, I looked like a cartoon character drawn on a piece of tracing paper. All of a sudden Kakashi pulled me into an embrace. Even though I was still a ghost I could hug him. I was translucent and solid. At that moment the shield that had been holding me together throughout the whole torturing process, suddenly broke down.

"Daddy, please I can't take it no more, it hurts too much, I can't ..." I cried into his shoulder, feeling a little bit of comfort that I should have received over a month ago. I felt Kakashi stiffen in my hug but I was in so much pain that I didn't really take it in. "They want to use me so I can hurt people, they're trying to break me. I swear I'm trying to hang on daddy but it's hard." I felt Kakashi push me away slightly but his firm hands still around my arms.

"Nariko, tell me where you are and I promise I'll come and get you right now." He spoke with such firm confidence and trust that a little bit of common sense pushed itself back into my brain and made me realise what position I was in.

"I'm ... Aaarrrrggggghhhh." I screamed in pain, as I fall down and everything disappeared.


	36. Sending the message

I've had enough. No more breaking down, no more doubting myself, no more acting like a child. I am going to get out of here if it's the last thing I do. All I had to remind myself was to wait and then strike. I was going through one of Sticks torturing games but to be honest it didn't really bother me. The new fire that was burning inside my body was somehow protecting me from the pain that he was casting over me. Stick seemed to notice this as well and was using more dangerous methods to try and get some re-action out of me. After a while he gave up and left to probably go and talk to Danzo about his worries and failures. This was my chance. I forced my body to relax; my astral-drop (that's what I've called it) left my body and went zooming over to Hokage tower. It had been three days since I had been using it to search the place I was being held captive and memorising the number of guards and there time schedules. This was my first attempt to make contacted with anyone, since talking with Kakashi. But I found out that I couldn't go back to my translucent form for some reason. I had believed I was able to show myself to Kakashi last time because I was under high stress and was somehow able to link with him on spiritual level, this all sounded odd to me but it was the only thing I was able to come up with to understand the situation. I watched the green blurs fly past me as I quickly approached Konohagakure, since I couldn't re-connect with my visible astral-drop I needed to find out some way to communicate with whoever I came upon. This is going difficult, I thought to myself when I looked up and saw the tall Hokage tower; burning bright in the darkness, I began to feel myself slow down and eventually stopped in the Hokage's office. I froze when I saw an angry looking Kakashi, with an annoyed looking Sasuke and a helpless looking Naruto, sitting at his desk as he watched his former sensei and best friend/rival (as Minato would put it)argued over something that I had no idea about since I had only just walked in on it.

"How can you say that?" Kakashi snapped at something Sasuke had said earlier but I had missed. This made my plan even harder. How the hell was I going to get their attention if they were already to busy trying to kill each other? I sighed to myself, as I walked to stand next to Naruto. I felt completely sorry for him, since he seemed to be torn between the two of them and didn't know who to support. I just wanted to hug him but sadly couldn't.

"I said that because for the past few weeks you've being working yourself to the ground." Sasuke argued back but in a calmer manner. "How do we not know that what you saw was not just some kind of hallucination?" Uh oh, I thought to myself, I hope this is not about...

"Believe me or not Sasuke I saw her and she was in pain, how do you expected me to sit back and do nothing." Kakashi questioned, slamming Naruto's table with his fist, leaving a dent in it. Why have I been so physic lately, I wondered to myself, since I had just predicted something else and got it right. Besides I kind of felt sorry for the table because I knew it was a special gift from Hinata when Naruto had first been announced Hokage, she had it specially made and everything. I was going to have a go at dad later when I was free and everything. "What I want to know now is what are we going to do about it now?" Kakashi asked, snapping me out of my little thoughts. Everyone –including me- turned to Naruto and waited for him to speak. Finally noticing that everyone was looking to him for leadership, Naruto learnt on his desk and began to think. It seemed like a whole decade had gone by before Naruto finally opened his eyes again.

"Sasuke has a point; you have been working yourself overboard which could have caused you to imagine your meeting with her, Kakashi." He spoke. I wanted to get angry at him for suggesting that but couldn't because I knew he was only thinking logically and was trying to do what was best; he is the Hokage after all. Looking back at dad, I saw he was about to argue with Naruto's decision but Naruto put his hand up in a very commanding manner that silence him instantly. "However, I have known Kakashi for most of my life and know he has been in mentally worse circumstances and still been able to pull through. Plus, let's not forget Nariko's unique abilities." He finished. A great weight seemed to be lifted off Kakashi at that moment.

"But there's still the question of how are we going to find her and how can we used this to our advantage?" Sasuke interrupted, turning the atmosphere sour again. Jeez, can't you just be happy for once, I notion, trying to direct my angry thoughts at him. Which sadly didn't not seem to have any affect. At least, that's what I first thought. Something went whizzing past the top of my head and smacked Sasuke's in the shoulder.

"Ouch, what the hell was that for idiot?" Sasuke demanded, rubbing his arm. Naruto just sat there with a dumb found expression, while Kakashi could only look at Naruto like he had completely lost it. On the other hand I was jumping in joy because I had wanted to do that for so long and this also meant I had found a different way to communicate with them.

"I didn't do it." Naruto finally spoke after he got over his shock. Kakashi seemed to also regain his self control but I could see the confusion written in his eyes, since everyone in this room was still trying to figure out how the book managed to fly nearly half way across the room and hit Sasuke, without anyone touching it.

"Then if you didn't who did." Sasuke asked, resulting in being hit by another book. What can I say I needed to test my new ability wasn't my imagination and that I could actually send objects flying in this form.

"Nariko... is that you." Naruto called out. Finally, I thought, as I opened one of the drawers in Naruto desk and grabbed the white bored and pen he had hidden in there (he said he needed it when he had a sore throat and needed to give out orders) and began writing on it.

_Yep it's me. _I wrote on it, the writing was a little bit of a scribble because I didn't have my control over it but at least it was readable. I laughed out loud when I saw the shocked expressions on the three grown men surrounding my piece of paper. You think they would have seen weirder stuff living the life of a shinobi.

"Hang on a second, how do we know if this is the real Nariko and not some kind of jutsu that the enemy's come up with to trick us?" Sasuke suddenly objected, ending up with another book slamming into his shoulder. Naruto tried to do all he could to muffle the laughter in his throat but failed miserably. Sasuke just stood there with a childish pout of his face which only made Naruto laugh even more. Even though the mask was hiding his face, Nariko could see a small smirk appear on Kakashi's face. The next thing I draw was a cartoon face, sticking its tongue out. Sasuke pout turned into a glare at the picture.

"We can defiantly establish that's Nariko." Naruto breathed once he calmed himself down. Naruto you're the best, I tried to mentally zap over to him but then remember I could write it on the board.

"What about me?" Kakashi joked, when he saw what I had written on the white board. I giggled at his attitude, rubbing the ink away and replacing it with the shape of a heart. Kakashi quickly beamed at the picture but suddenly became very serious. "Ok every Nariko, fun times over. Can you tell us where you are?" Reality hit me when I remember what I was here for and that I probably didn't have much time left. Quickly searching the rows of books, I picked up one that had geographic maps in and flung it on the table, flipping through the pages I found the map that showed the Border Mountains between the land of sound and land of fire and drew a cross where I was being held. Then I grabbed other pieces of paper and started scribbling down a side of the mountains with all the rooms that existed in the mountain and labelling traps and alarms that had been set up around the place. The more I draw the more control I started to gain over the pen and the more confident I began to feel. Paper flew everywhere as I began writing guard details and the estimated amount of guards, supplies and weapons that were stored inside the place.

"Do you know who's in charge of the operation?" Sasuke asked. Finally a reasonable question, I considered, as another piece of paper flew in my direction. I began drawing the man's face when a shock wave zapped through my body. In pain I accidently smudged a bit of the drawing and knocked over the ink on the table and on to the floor.

"Nariko!" Everyone in the room shouted at the same time. No! Have to tell them who, have to tell them who! I wasn't strong enough to draw them a picture of the man but I can at least give him his first name. More throbbing erupted through me and I fell to the floor, clutching my stomach. I didn't know how I was going to give them the old man's name because I couldn't concentrate on the pen.

"Nariko!" Kakashi cried out, suddenly standing next to me. I didn't understand how he knew I was in that spot until I looked at my hands and saw I was transparent again. Pain! That was it. That was I could make myself solid. I tried to shout out his name but I couldn't open my mouth without screaming. Forcing myself to think straight, I learnt forward and dipped my hand in the ink that had fallen onto the floor, shaking I began to write out the letters but on the last one I only managed to complete half of it before more pain erupted through my body; breaking my concentration and making me return back to my body.

The men stared at the floor in complete disbelief. There was no doubt in their minds now that was the real Nariko who had drawn up full battle details on Naruto's table. Anger burned through all of them when the shock began to subside. The last letter had not been completed but they could see clearly see who's name she had been trying to write; Danzo.


	37. Game Over

Pain roared from my cracked lips as Stick stabbed another one of his cold, metal knife into my weak and broken body. After a threatening speech from Danzo -that I had accidently astral-dropped myself into- he had started to use more dangerous (and very painful) methods to break my spirit but I knew it was never going to happen now that I knew help was on the way. Apparently, Danzo was getting annoyed with waiting and wanted me broken; at all costs. It had been three days since I had been in contacted with Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke. I knew it would take a week to get here, so I was just trying to hold on until then. Besides, that was only if there was good weather and you were travelling alone. Either way I had to wait; not matter how much it was killing me. A few hours later, Stick finally gave up and after sewing me back up and then left the room. I had no idea what I was going to do now that I was left by myself. I wanted to go and talk to someone but it wasn't like I could talk to anyone around here or to anyone back in the village, I wanted to visit them but I didn't know if any of them would be at home; except for the kids but I didn't want to scare the living day lights of them with the form I can only travel in.

**Well, why don't you try thinking of a person instead of a place?**

Oh no, not you again.

**Hey! Don't be like that!**

I don't think you've notice but I've been strapped to a table and have been torture for nearly two months!

**Dude, I'm you remember of course I know.**

Where have you been anyway?

**I don't know.**

What do you mean?

**It means that I don't know and before you get into an argument with me just try my theory out. **

I growled at my inner self but decided to try it out anyway. Forcing my body to relax, my astral-drop slid out of my body and took in the room around me. Ok, so I've got to concentrate on a specific person, but whom? I don't know who's coming to get me. The first person that came into my head was Kakashi but thinking back to the meeting he didn't look like he was in any good shape to travel but then again Kakashi was full of surprises, I guess he'll should be the first person I should try, I thought to myself. Besides, even if he wasn't on the mission it would be nice to visit him, I smiled to myself. Closing my eyes I tried to think of my dad but after what seemed like a decade nothing happened. Well thanks for nothing inner me, groaned in my head but no reply came. Great! She can just come and go as she pleases but I can't have a go at her, so not fair. What was I going to do now? Not only was I depressed but lonely as well. Oh, if only the guys were here. Imagines of my friends flipped through my brain until it landed on Minato. I wished you were with me Minato, I cried silently to myself as I floated glumly around the room, it was weird but it was better than being strapped to a table. You would know what to ... Whoosh! I didn't know what just happened but one moment I was looking at the grey walls of my prison, the next I was standing right beside Minato. What just happened? I wondered to myself as I took in my surroundings for the first time. I was in some kind of forest near a lake that I kind of recognised. I also noticed that Minato wasn't the only one in the clearing. Itachi and Nene were there as well, all of them were wearing battle gear. Maybe this is the group the Hokage sent to find me, I wondered to myself. I was thankful if it was people I knew because I had a feeling that I was not going to be myself for a couple of days. Rustling from the bushes caught my attention. When I sensed whose charka presence it was I didn't know whether to groan or be happy that someone else I knew was here. The figure that emerged from the bushes also in his full ANBU outfit but the mask was placed on the side of his face.

"Alright everyone back to camp." Sasuke ordered with his usual emotionless face. Seriously it was like he was a ninja twenty-four seven, however, I guess you could say the same about my dad, always wearing a mask and everything but at least you could still see a bit of emotion in his face.

"Hai!" All three teenagers answered the older man and all of them were walking back to the camp but all of a sudden Itachi suddenly grabbed his father's arm and pulled him back a bit. I always found it weird at first at how Itachi and Sasuke could act like father and son at one moment and then comrades the next but I guessed it had something to do with Itachi having the mind of an adult and was also one of the most respected shinobi that helped out a bit. As I stood just a few steps away from the two I was trying to decide whether it was rude to eavesdrop on the conversation they were having or if I should follow Nene and Minato back to camp, until Itachi started talking.

"Is there a reason why you're acting tenser on a mission then usual?" Itachi asked. How his father could acted anymore tense then he already was I'll never know but I guess Itachi knew him better and knew when his father was happy or not under that mask he always wore. Sasuke only stared at his son for a few moments before sighing and began massaging the temples on his head.

"There no hiding anything from you is their Itachi." His father smiled. I still couldn't get used to that smile, I've only seen it twice in my life now and it was creepy. Itachi smiled back at his father and shrugged but his face became serious again when he repeated the question. This time his father answered. "I'm worried about Nariko, from what we can guess she's been tortured and a person isn't the same after an experience like that." I could only stand there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot. Did I just hear that correctly? I thought to myself trying to get my thoughts straight after what Sasuke just said. Sasuke! The one and only Sasuke. That is always giving my dirty looks and is moody all the time is worried about me. Hey, maybe this is a dream. Nah, sadly I'm not that lucky.

"I don't understand, you're worried about Nariko but ever since she's come here you've treated her like she's an unwanted disease. Seriously, what's going on?" Itachi questioned confused, I was nodding in agreement, I think it was about time I knew why the head Uchiha didn't like me that much. There was a moment of silence and Sasuke turned towards the river with a deep thinking expression on his face.

"It's because she reminds me to much of Sakura." His father finally answered with a mixed of sadness and regret on his face. I was staring at Sasuke in confusion and so was Itachi. What does my mum have to do with this? I wondered to myself, it seemed like ages before Sasuke finally explained himself. "Sakura was like a sister to me and when she left it hurt; really hurt. I guess I had been trying to hide away the pain and when Nariko returned, I couldn't help but unleashed some of it on her. For that I am truly sorry." After Sasuke finished his speech I could feel I was on the verge of tears. To be honest a part of me wanted to slap him around the head for being an idiot and taking out his anger on me but it wasn't like he did anything unforgiveable and he did seem truly sorry. Father and son stood there in silence for a few moments before Itachi walked up to his father and placed one of his hands on his fathers' shoulder for comfort.

"We all make mistakes dad but it doesn't matter, it all depends on how you get yourself back up again." Itachi smiled, making Sasuke smile back.

"I believe you are becoming to wise for your own good Itachi." Sasuke responded, ruffling his son's hair so it became all messy, while Itachi was laughing and trying to pile his fathers' hands away from his head. Even though I thought it was really sweet, it was still really weird. "Come; let's get back to the others. We need to go over the stagey plans for the army."Sasuke stated, turning serious again but not so serious as before. After all this time I thought I would never like him but here I am starting to like him a bit, I pondered to myself, smiling as I watched son and father walk away. However, something that Sasuke had said was thumping at the back of my head and it took me a few minutes to realise it. Wait! What? Army, what army? I debilitated with myself, quickly following the duo until I saw what he meant. In front of her lay a whole campsite of a Konohagakure army. My mouth dropped open with shock; it was quite an impressive site. My body (well astral drop) could do nothing but stare, I thought I recognise the woods; they were only a few miles away from where I was. How did they get here so quickly with so many people? I wondered to myself. I spotted lots of people I knew, including dad who was trying to ignore a talking Gai, who was going on about some youth rescues. I guessed it was mine. I wonder why it didn't work when I tried it with dad then? I thought, thinking back to where I had been trying to find him. Before I could think this through any further a cold tingle flashed onto my neck. Guess it's time for me to go, I thought sadly, over the days I had been trying to work on some sought of alarm to warn me that Stick was coming back and I didn't want to be zapped awake again since those things really hurt. Looking at the site once more, I closed my eyes and teleported back to face another session.

Stick came and went. I went through one of his torture sessions and watched helplessly as more drugs where put into my system to keep my charka restrained. I was still shocked over what I had witness back in the woods but I was also happy. Hopefully they would be here soon and get me the hell out of here. I don't how much time had passed when I woke up from a little power nap I had been having when Stick had walked back in with one of his ugly smiles on his face along with Danzo, who was surprised to see coming in here.

"Just wait what I had in store for you girly." Stick smirked at me why Danzo just stood next to him expressionless. I just rolled my eyes at Stick ignorance. Seriously when was this guy going to get it, nothing can break it. Well at least I thought, until I saw two guards drag someone through the door.

"No." I whispered, barely able to find the fire that had filled my body a couple of seconds ago. That's when I knew. It was game over.


	38. Declartion of War

Minato was doing his best to put on a normal face while his father went over the battle plans one last time but his mind kept wondering back to Nariko, it had been nearly two months for their hunt for Nariko with no clues or leads. Minato had started to get worried when Nene mention that she was taking too long to pack, so when they went in search for her they couldn't find her anyway. The Hokage had instantly sent out search teams but it was like she had disappeared into thin air. Then after weeks for no luck his father had called everyone to the office for an emergency and announces a declaration of war, along with maps and charts of the enemy numbers. It wasn't until later that his father had pulled him and his friends aside and told them where they had got the information from. The very thought of Nariko hurt made Minato want to vomit but he had to stay strong. Whoever this Danzo was that kidnapped Nariko he was going to make him pay by ripping out his internal organs and stuff them down his throat. Shaking the thoughts from his head he tried to focus on the plan but second's later Nariko pop straight back into his head again. Nariko what have you done to me? He pondered to himself, ever since he had met Nariko he was... He didn't have any words to describe it; smitten maybe. He just loved everything about her, the way she flipped her hair back when she was trying to do some colouring with Hamako, the way she would smile even though she was sad but didn't want people to see it and the way she made his skin tingle when their skin connected. He had never felt this way about a person before. The only person he had talked to about it was Itachi and he suggested it was love. Yeah, right! Love, it couldn't be that. He just wasn't interested in girls like that, he just wanted to hang out with his mates and family and be the best ninja he could be. But the question always nagged him at the back of his mind. Was he in love with Nariko? He kept telling himself that it wasn't possible but then he had to remind himself that he had dreamed more than once about kissing Nariko. Man, why does life have to be such a drag? Minato thought, thinking he was starting to hang out with Shikaku way too much. After they rescued Nariko he was going to have a long talk with his mates again and see what they think. For the last five minutes Minato forced himself to pay attention before his father dismissed them and ordered them to get their stuff ready. Today was the day. They were going to make their strike against Danzo and his small army hidden in the mountain; every single advantage point was on their side. They had size because his father brought twice the amount of ninja then what was estimated, area because they knew the place inside out-Nariko was even able to find some of the secret exits for them to sneak into- and they had the element of surprise. His team had the most important job. Get in, get Nariko and get out. His team consisted of Nene, Kakashi and Itachi. Strapping his weapons pouch around his waist he counted his supplies before meeting up with his team. By the looks of it his team was ready; all of them had their ANBU outfits on, even Kakashi who was no longer an ANBU but once a black op always a black op. Minato pulled his own mask of a fox over his face as he joined him. Before they set off Kakashi went over the plan again, which Minato was grateful for since he only knew half of what he was doing. After the quick briefing team seven set off to fulfil their part of the plan, there was going to be a shift change in five minutes, so with the help of Nene's eyes they were able to see any intruders coming their way and sneak into the building by one of the secret entrances. For Itachi, Kakashi and Nene, it was easy for them to walk up the stairs but Minato had to rely on using his ears and the little light he had to make sure he didn't get lost in the corridors. Why do I have to be the only one on my team with no night vision? Minato muttered angrily to himself for what was probably the thousandth time in his lifetime. He almost bumped into Itachi if Nene hadn't stopped him in time. He shot her a quick smile before focusing back at the task at hand. He hated to wait but they needed to stop and wait for the distraction to come before they could raced over to where Nariko was, according to the map she should just be around the corner. While he was in the middle of processing his thoughts a loud explosion sounded over head with a quick signal from Nene saying the hallway had three guards they raced out of the passage way and around the corner. Itachi and Minato took out the guards while Nene and Kakashi raced ahead, only stopping at one of the doors that contained Nariko. They got to work, placing explosives along the door frame, Nariko had warned them that only a few people had access to her room they had to use some kind of laser scanner to let them in and the only people that could do that were Danzo and another figure which Nariko called Stick. However, they did not have the time to search for the two, so they had to use explosives. Minato and Itachi came up behind them as Kakashi and Nene finished placing the last tag on.

"Stand back." Kakashi ordered. At his command the three teenagers took a few steps back while their sensei made a couple of hand seals. "Ninja Art, Fire style, explosion jutsu." He cried out. The ink on the tags glowed then one by one exploded. After the fire and smoke had disappeared, a metal door badly burnt stood in front of them but not for long as the door slowly fell down in front of them. Finally! Minato thought, as they all walked into the room. After months of searching they had finally found her and now... What? Minato eyes widen as the scene of the room. The walls were blindly white but the table in front of them wasn't, it might of been one time but there was stains of blood on the table, some old some new and there were sliver chains that look like they had a few chips and scratches on them for struggling. But there was no Nariko.

"This was not possible!" All four shinobi cried out at the scene that lay before them. Maybe they had the wrong room but they couldn't be it was obvious that someone had been here lately and there was no way the guards could have moved her when they heard the attack begin. They were all trapped in their silent thoughts until one of them slammed the wall.

"No!" Kakashi yelled, removing his hand from the wall –revealing a dent where his hand had been. His three students could only look on in shock. They had never seen their sensei loss his temper before; never. It took Kakashi a few moments to calm down before he straightened his back and turned to them. He quickly summoned Pakkun and strapped a note to him. "Go to Naruto and give him this message." He commanded, writing a quick note and placing it into mouth. With a nod the small dog ran off in search of Naruto. "From here we split up, Nene and Itachi take the west and the south, Minato you and I will take the east and the north. Understood?" He ordered.

"Hai!" All three teenagers cried out. Itachi and Nene ran off first while Minato and Kakashi followed suit but in the opposite direction. They searched every room they passed, bringing down any enemy that stood in their way.

"Kakashi stop!" Minato shouted for the third time before catching his teaches attention. Kakashi flashed him a look of annoyance but allowed Minato to speak. "We can't just check the whole complex, we have to know who had access to her and where would they move her." He watched as Kakashi progressed the information and finally nodded after some quick thinking. Minato summon to clones to watch while he and Kakashi went over the map they had out in front of them.

"So we're here." Kakashi pointed to a hallway on the map. That was another thing about the Sharingan; it stopped you from getting lost. Minato nodded, as he tried to recall the information from the meeting about this place and the people in charge of the complex.

"We know that the only two people that had access to the room: Danzo and a man that Nariko calls Stick." Minato answered, searching the rooms on the map. Seeing one of the rooms something in his mind clicked. "There." Minato pointed, at the big box called 'Danzo's Meeting Room'. He didn't know what made him think that room but something in his gut told him and a ninja's biggest survival weapon was his gut feeling. Besides, if Danzo's is the coward everyone says he is then he would be in the place where he feels most comfortable. Kakashi seemed to realise the same thing and began to make plans of attack before we ran to the main room. There were a few guards that slowed down our process but eventually they made it to the double wooden doors that looked almost menacing. But they are elite shinobi and are hardly affected by it. It only takes them less than a second to kick in the door and storm in and find the room empty. Minato heart dropped when he looked around the cold dark room again. "But I was so sure!" Minato muttered. Great! He had just wasted his and Kakashi time.

"I wouldn't get yourself down my boy," A cold voice hissed through the darkness. A figure wrapped in bandages and a walking stick emerges from the shadows. He approached with his cane tapping the floor soundlessly as he approached, bit by bit. But despite the fragile appearance, there was something sinister hiding underneath that made the hairs on the back of Minato's neck stand up. Something wasn't right.

"Where is Nariko?" Kakashi hissed with a snake's venom in his voice. A small smirk appeared on his face but other than that he made no motion or noise to Kakashi's question. Maybe he needs a little persuasion? Minato thought, as he pulled out two kunai's and threw them at the old man. Only to be deflected by a different person who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Geez Uzumaki I thought you had more honour then that, attacking an old man." Daitaro grinned, fiddling with his kunai in his hand, like it was some kind of game.

"Daitaro you bastard! I should have known that you had something to do with this!" Minato snapped back, grabbing another kunai from his belt and preparing to attack. But before any action had been allowed to be developed Danzo suddenly appeared by Daitaro side. Minato had to admit, for an old man; he was fast.

"Now, now son, we have plans to arrange, let our special girl take care of these two." He suggested before directing his son in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" Minato yelled, chasing the two with Kakashi just behind him. They were nearly on them but before the two leaf shinobi had to time to registered anything some force hit them and sent them crashing into the wall. Minato was back on his feet, ready to take on the next enemy. Horror struck through his body when he saw who it was, dropping his weapon in the process. "Kami no." Minato whispered to himself. Kakashi stood up beside Minato a second later and muttered something that Minato didn't quite catch. In front of them stood Nariko except her eyes... they were pure black. It was like she had no soul.

"Kill them." Danzo ordered before leaving the room with Daitaro. Damn it! Minato thought as he jumped out of the way of one of Nariko attacks. He knew she was fast but not that fast. Just as his feet touched the ground she came out him again; her fist connected with my jaw. He was surprised that he hadn't broken his jaw. When he looked back up he saw Kakashi trying to get a hold of her.

"Nariko, snap out of it!" He yelled, as she slipped out of his grip and went for him. Kakashi and Minato were helpless. How could they harm one of the most important person in their life? Even if she was trying to kill them. After a few minutes of attempting dodging they couldn't take it anymore. The ability to even push themselves off the floor was too much. Blood poured from their open wounds and their bruised muscles screamed with pain. They had to reach her somehow but how? Minato thought. Suddenly, something grabbed him but his shirt and lifted him off the floor, so he was now eye level with Nariko.

"Nariko...please...stop." Minato croaked, watching the kunai that Nariko was holding, coming closer and closer to his neck. "Nariko, please, fight it!" He managed to yell the last bit. Just as the cold blade touched his neck; she stopped. It was like time had stopped as well. Yes! Minato cried, she still in there somewhere, she just needs a little help. "Remember who you are: your name is Nariko Tusnade Haruno, your mother name is Sakura Haruno and you fathers is that man laying on the floor right now, you love to pig out on chocolate, you love to play with Hamako and all her little friends, you hate corny love stories but you always cry when you watch the Titanic and you love to get up early every morning because you love to watch the sun rise. Come on Nariko, Fight it!" He cried out. He saw a single tear drop down her cheek. Time was still at that moment except from the groans of Kakashi pushing himself up and walking over to them. He placed his hand gently on his daughter's wrist.

"Nariko, no matter what happens I'll always love you." He smiled. Her grip on Minato shirt loosened and the kunai fell from her hand. More droplets fell from her eyes like a tidal wave. Unable to see her in distress anymore Minato pulled Nariko into a hug. When she pulled away he saw that her eyes were no longer pure poison but instead her beautiful opal irises. She was smiling for a second but then her face turned to pure anger.

"DANZO!" She screamed, destroying one of the columns in the room.


	39. Murderous Rage

"DANZO!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as raged burn through me like an explosive volcano hidden inside my body. In a rage I crashed my fist into one of the columns that stood to support the hall. The bricks shattered in to tiny pieces when my fist collided with the solid surface. Danzo was going to pay; I was going to make sure of it, now where did that little snake and his pet pig go? I thought to myself. I could hear Kakashi and Minato trying to talk to me in the back ground but the fury was so intense that I couldn't focus on anything except on ripping Danzo into tiny little pieces. Ignoring their pleas I ran in the direction where Danzo and Daitaro disappeared, I could sense Kakashi and Minato racing after me and shout my name but my body refused to stop and listen. My body was massively pumping adrenaline through me, as I chased after the two men in the darkness. After a while Minato and Kakashi's voices disappeared, probably because I was ten times faster than them and I had beaten the crap out of them so they weren't in their best form. Even though I had been under Danzo's influence I could still see and hear everything and think; I just had no control over my actions. This allowed me to hear Danzo's plans when we heard the attack begin, so I knew actually where he was. "DANZO YOU FUCKING BASTARD, YOU ASS IS MINE!" I screamed at the very top of my voice, when I exited the passage way, finding myself outside the mountain for the first time in months and just in the distance I saw Danzo making a run for it. Danzo turned to face me when he held me scream out his name with fear and shock in his face. Grabbing two kunai out of my pouch I threw them at Danzo, only to be deflected by Daitaro, who seemed to appear out of nowhere like before when I witness Minato throwing his kunai's at Danzo. I was glad he placed himself between me and his father because I was going to have the pleasure of killing him first. Kunai and sword clashed as we fought against each other, looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danzo escaping into the depths of the forests. My little distraction caused me a blow to the face as I felt myself flying backwards, hitting the floor; hard. I was on my feet again in less than a second and found myself, clashing my weapon against Daitaro's again. Damn! This idiot is in my way, I thought, as I continued to either block his attacks or try and stab him. "Get out of my way!" I shouted at him as I lashed for him again. He only smirked as he dodged another of my advances.

"Sorry Princess can't let you get the old man." He grinned, blocking my kick to his head because I was hoping to swipe the smile off his face. His smile seemed to grow even bigger when he realised he was getting to me, which I hate to admit but he was. All my anger that had been focused on Danzo before was now focused on Daitaro. If I couldn't make his father suffer, I was going to make him suffer. I thought it seemed fair since he was just as evil as his father. A sudden flash in my memory caused more rage to swim through. Letting out a loud roar, I slammed my kunai into Daitaro neck. It seemed like nothing had happened at first, until I jerk the dagger back out and blood splattered everywhere. Daitaro staggered around, clutching his hand to his wound as he tried to stop the bleeding but it was already to let. The blow I had cast was a killer blow or so I had thought. I didn't know if it was Daitaro's will power to kill me right on the spot or me simply missing the main artery I had been hoping to hit but he staggered towards me, a killer intent gleamed in his dark brown eyes. It was like watching some kind of zombie horror movie, as Daitaro came at me again. My anger was quickly replaced by fear when I saw the monstrous look in his face. Instinct took over as I began to stab wildly at his body, not caring if I hit anything major or not but was hoping for him to stay away from me but all my efforts where in vain as he just kept coming at me. A little common sense seemed to kick in at the last moment when Daitaro came at me with his katana aimed at my stomach, dodging the sharp piece of metal, instead of just landing a blow on him I focus my aim, so I threw the kunai straight through his heart. He stopped in his tracks but after a while he slowly began to face me again. To be honest I was only a little surprised that it hadn't worked, since I always thought Daitaro had not heart there to begin with.

"Just die already you sick bastard!" I yelled at him. He only stared at me for a second before he collapsed on to his knees. Slowly, he began to raise his shaken hand and pointed at me.

"This... isn't... over." He managed to stutter, before falling face first on to muddy ground. All of the rage within my body disappeared at that moment, leaving me to feel how tired and beaten my body was. I was unable to keep my body standing up straight as it seemed that my body had gone into shock. My whole body shut down leaving me to stare at Daitaro body. I hadn't realised that it had started raining through our fight, so I sat there, letting the cold droplets wipe away the worse of the sticky blood that burned my skin and clothing. Whether some of it was mine or anything, I didn't know because I didn't think to check. My mind was having difficulties processing what was going on around me –I was even having trouble trying to remember who I was. I didn't know how long I had been sat out there, until they found me. I didn't even acknowledge their existence at first until someone touched much shoulder. I couldn't even register what that person said to me but somehow my body turned onto auto pilot, so when it sounded like someone had given me an order, my body followed. The person helped guide me away from the scene to someplace else. My body didn't take in the area surrounded me but when the rain began to slow down my body functions began to switch back on again. The first thing I did when I regained the ability to think again was vomit, as the weight of the last few weeks caught up to me. Shock and horror filled my body when I thought of my fight with Daitaro and made me vomit even harder. I hadn't even notice that someone had been next to me the whole time and was trying to help sooth my violent shaking body. I tried to look at them and thank them for their kindness but my vision was too blurry and I couldn't make out the figure that kneeled beside me. Calming down a little bit I tried to get back up again but found my legs to numb to carry my weight. In one swift movement, I felt myself being swept up into the air and carried bridal style to whatever destination I was being taken too. Taking in the comfort and the warmth of someone's body I melted into a deep sleep.

I was a little confused at first when I woke up to a different place to where I had been last. Instead of the white coloured walls, I found the brown walls of a large tent and instead of the hard cold table that I was used to I found myself in a soft warm bed, free to move my body. Sitting up the warm blankets that once covered me fell, allowing the cold wind from the tent gap to graze my skin. It was only then that the memoirs of what had happen hit me like one of Tsunade's fist hitting the wall in a bad mood. Suddenly, the walls around me seemed to get closer and closer, squeezing the oxygen from the room. I felt like I was suffocating, throwing the blankets off me I ran towards the entrance of the tent. Ignoring the burst of sunlight that almost blinded me when I exited the tent. I ran as fast I could, not knowing where I was going or even caring for that matter. I just wanted to find some place alone to breath. I don't know when I decided to slow down but I suddenly found myself at the edge of a small river. The soft sounds calmed my body, as I sat next to the rippling water. Curling my legs close to my body and hugging them tight. Closing my eyes I let my mind drift to the soft sounds of animals hidden in the trees and the animals playing in the lake, absorbing the glorious day around them. A small smile crept across my face, since it was the first time I felt harmony flow like sweet honey through me. I didn't even jump or move the slightest when I felt a familiar charka walk up behind because I was too happy and didn't want to ruin the moment I had claimed for myself. They sat beside me being careful not to disturb me or the nature around them. I was grateful for the extra minutes of peace I had been giving but sadly all good things must come to an end one way or another.

"Are you ok?" Minato sweet voice asked, placing a warm hand on my cold one, which I instantly grabbed back, hoping to never like go. I shook my head to show I was ok, despite what I was feeling on the inside. "Nariko, I honestly find it offensive that you think I don't know you well enough to know what's really going on." He joked, trying to lighten the mood; it worked a little because the smile on my face grew a little bit bigger. Not wanting to let go of the good energy that surround this place any time soon, I gave myself another few moments in the peace and calm before opening my eyes to reality.

"I don't think I should tell you." I finally answered, breaking the silence that had fallen upon us when I had decided to finally speak. I felt his hand grip my hand even tighter. Gently, his free hand graced the skin of my cheek and moved it so my dark opal eyes were staring into his bright blue ones.

"Do you remember back in the hospital room, when I left the flowers so you had someone to talk to?" He asked. I nodded in reply, not sure what he was trying to explain. "I left them so you would have something to release your secrets to because I saw how they were eaten you up inside, just like now." He smiled, caressing my cheeks softly. "Remember it's not good to keep all your emotions stashed away." I was never sure if I hated Minato for knowing me so well but in this case I was quite glad.

"I don't know where to start." I whispered, as the past months events started passing in and out of my mind every second.

"Try and start where it hurt most." He answered; I could see the logic in it because it's probably the best to get the worst off your chest first.

"It was such a stupid trick!" I cried, slamming my hand on the ground, causing the fish in the river to stop their playing and run away as fast as they could. I sent out a silent apology to them because I kind of felt bad for disrupting their game. "I had just woken up and then Stick entered, I thought it was just going to be another session but then Danzo enter and I got really confused." I paused for a little bit, since I was finding it hard to speak with sobs escaping my throat. With a little help from Minato I was able to control myself and tried to explain again. "Then they dragged someone in, I could see at first until they forced his head up, it was ...you." I turned to Minato who only nodded his head, telling me to continue. "We made a deal, I was to let down my shield and they would let you live. When he preformed the jutsu on me, I couldn't remember anything: where I was or even who I was and then you disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced by Daitaro." Tears flooded from my eyes when I slowly remember the events after it, I didn't want to tell him because it was just too terrible. I wanted to stop but when Minato saw what I was trying to cover up something he made me look in to his face again. He didn't need to say anything, it was written in his stubborn face that he wanted me to tell him everything; no matter how bad it was. "They wanted to see if the jutsu worked, so... so they brought out fifty children they had been using as experiments and made me...made me... kill them." I sobbed, crying my eyes out. Minato grabbed me and pulled me into a hug and tried his best to soothe me. I didn't understand why he was doing this, despite the situation I was in I should have fought harder, I had been screaming in my head to stop when I was forced to watch myself kill them. What I hated the most was that I looked into their scared eyes while I was doing it; I knew I was going to be haunted by those images for a long time. Thankfully I had Minato and a great family behind me; somehow I knew I was going to get through this.

I must have fallen asleep again because when I opened my eyes I found myself being carried bridal style through the forests, instead of by the river where I had been crying my eyes out.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Minato asked gently. I didn't want to answer straight away, since I was enjoying leaning my head against his chest and listening to his steady heart beat, absorbing the warmth from his chest and into me.

"I want to go home." I whispered. Minato let out a small laugh as he carried me back to the camp, where a hundred people seemed to surround us all at once, asking where had we been and why didn't we tell anyone. Even though the questions we meant for me they all seemed to be directed at Minato. I didn't want to repeat what I had just told Minato and only gripped onto Minato ANBU vest even tighter. Sensing my discomfort Minato squeezed himself through the crowd of people, being careful that he didn't bump into any one. He carried me all the way back to my tent and placed me back on the bed, pulling the covers high to my chin.

"Get some rest; it's going to be a long walk home tomorrow." He smiled, bending down and gently kissing the top of my head. A shockwave went through my body at his interment touch. Home, I thought, as I drifted back to sleep.


	40. Home

Despite my protests, I had to be carried most of the way back to Konoha –even if it meant giving it up to some else that needed it more than I did. But Tsunade claimed I was suffering for metal exhausting and would be able to walk around again with a couple of days of bed rest. Plus, thanks to Minato, I didn't need to repeat myself about my terrible events to everyone because he already told everyone. At first I wasn't sure if I was happy letting everyone know what I had done but I knew I would have told them away because I wouldn't have been able to keep it to myself for long. Well, not everyone, just the important people. I had complete support from all sides of the family, even Sasuke's but I guess he was trying to make up for how moody he's been towards me. I was happy to finally be going home, I still found it weird that I had actually found a place I could call that; did I mention it was weird? Minato and Kakashi never left my side (excepted when Naruto forced them to go and have a rest and even then they weren't that far away) so I was never allowed to do anything myself. After a few days and I felt well rested and was able to argue well again, I argued that I was fine and that someone else should be carried, despite nearly everyone's insistence that I stay in bed –especially Minato, Kakashi and Tsunade- I won my case and was allowed to travel on foot with everyone else. I still wasn't up to my full strength but I refused to be carried any more, even when it was only just will power dragging me along. After two weeks on consistent travelling the small speck of Konohagakure sprang into view, it seemed at that moment that everyone sped up their pace, especially me who was more than happy to be home. The first thing that Naruto ordered was for everyone to go home and rest but wanted me and Kakashi to meet me in his office tomorrow morning to discuss some stuff. I groaned but didn't say anything else as Kakashi led me back to his place. The next morning Kakashi cooked a quick breakfast before we made our way over to Hokage tower, I loved breathing in the busy streets of the village again.

"Come in." We heard Naruto shout after we had knocked on the office door. Entering the room we made a polite bow, he maybe a friend but he was also the Hokage.

"How are you today Lord Hokage?" I asked politely, making Naruto roll his eyes in annoyance. He hated it when his friends had to call him that. Plus, I thought it was funny how he rolled his eyes.

"Please don't call me that." He moaned, placing his head on his hands. "You know I find it strange that all I ever wanted was to be Hokage but in the end I hate people calling it." He ranted before turning back into a serious Hokage like manner. "Right, the reason I called you over here was because of this Nariko." He explained, handing over a white envelope. I took it from his hands and examine the outside of it.

"What is it?" I questioned, not sure what it was when I saw no markings or stamps on it.

"Well, now that you know who your family is and our now the age of sixteen you are allowed your families inheritance." He responded. Seeing one of my eyebrows rise in confusion he continued to explain. "On your mother side you come from a small business family that was quite wealthy, when your grandparents died all their money went to Sakura and she placed all of it an account for safe keeping. Now it's yours." I nodded in understanding and nervously opened the small white enveloped and pulled a small check out of it. It took me a few moments to realise what the giant numbers meant on the page.

"Uuuummm dad, how many zeros are there in a million?" I asked, Kakashi gave a me a questionable look before answering.

"Nine, I believe why?" He enquired with interested, as I continued to look at the piece of paper.

"So, eeerrrrr, what does twelve zeros make?" The next thing I knew was Kakashi and even Naruto standing next to me and looking over my shoulder. It won't be until later I discover how interest rates would play an important part in the increase of my family inheritance.

A few months past and I was sitting by myself on top of the Hokage Monument, thinking to myself. Now that I was sixteen I could decide if I wanted bodyguards or not. I had decided against it, even though Danzo was still out there I didn't need consent reminder of the events. Everyone disagreed with it but in the end it was my decision, besides they were probably going to follow anyway. Daitaro family had been investigated, which allowed us to not only damage Danzo support but his finical support as well, since the family had been supplying Danzo with money to build his army, a few other families that had been found connected were also arrested. Some of the council wanted the main conspirators' to be executed but Naruto disagreed and instead sent them to work in the mines for the rest of their lives- many agreed with his decision, since the traitors probably wished to be dead; since they only knew how to live a wealthy lifestyle and never lift a finger. One the things that everyone managed to convince me to do was to take counselling. I only agreed because I thought it would make them feel better (and it made me feel but I wasn't willing to tell anyone that). Besides even though I had no bodyguards officially I was still followed constantly. They thought I hadn't notice but despite not be a train shinobi like they were I still knew if I was being followed. Sensing Kakashi hovering in the trees nearby I continued to ignore him. I considered throwing a kunai at him right there and blame it on thinking he was an enemy shinobi but decided against it; he was only being a dad after all. It was strange to believe that Kakashi seemed to be able to watch me and not leave out of boredom but then again I guess you had the Konohagakure sunset to make up for it. A spark on charka sent my nerves on alert for a moment before I settle back down again when I finally realised whose charka it was. Well if he's not hiding it he must want to talk, I wondered to myself. I didn't bother to turn to him or anything, since we had developed this sought of connection so we knew what the other was basically thinking –well Minato could, I was starting to get better at it at least. A minute later Minato sat himself next to me, it had become routine for us to sit quietly next to each other (like we were trying to absorb each other essences) before one of us began talking.

"So, how's the therapy going?" He questioned, taking a large bar of chocolate out of his pocket, breaking a bit off and giving some to me.

"It's alright but that Ibiki guy still scares me." I answered, biting into the sweet milk chocolate that melted on my lips; seriously who needs therapy when you have chocolate to mend every broken bone in your body; I hear it's good for the heart as well. Yeah, I had only found out a week after my first appointment with Ibiki that he was a special ninja in the interrogation unit, which kind of freaked me out since he was my counsellor. I hated that he seemed to get into my head with just a movement of my hand or a flick of my hair, seriously it was creepy.

"Yes I hear he is very good at that." Minato joked, passing me another piece of chocolate.

"Are you trying to make me fat?" I asked taking the piece he was handing me. It seemed that every time I and Minato met now a days he always seemed to have a bar of chocolate on him.

"Sorry, I've kind of got into the habit of buying this stuff when you disappeared." He replied, insistently regretting when he saw the twisted look on my face; I was still getting use to the whole ordeal. "Oh, Nariko I'm so sorry, Kami! I'm such an idiot." He slapped himself on the fore head, leaving a red mark on his forehead. Sending charka to my hands I placed my hand on his forehead and heal the red mark, I didn't want to risk a bruise appearing on his perfect face.

"Don't be sorry Minato, I want us to be able to talk about anything." I muttered, since I was trying to concentrate my eyes away from his lips. For some reason my attraction to Minato had grown stronger ever since I battled him under Danzo's control. I was still having a hard time getting myself together and trying to figure it out. Maybe I should talk to Nene about it? I thought to myself. I finally realised that my hand had been place on Minato head for a little too long before I finally removed it. "So got any plans for this evening?" I asked, trying to change the subject and hoping Minato hadn't notice the small blush on my face.

"Oh yeah, mum wanted to know if you and Kakashi wanted to come over for dinner tonight along with the Uchihas?" A small shiver went down my back at the thought of having to sit in the same room as Sayuri. Our relationship had improved a little but there was still tension in the air.

"Well I'm ok with it but I'll have to ask dad later." I answered, I made a small head movement in the direction where dad was hiding and Minato covered his mouth to surpress a laugh. It would be moments like this I would cherish for the rest of my life because I knew that with people like Danzo still out there that everything was far from over.

**COMING SOON THE SPIRIT WARRIOR**


End file.
